m 



:rbe STORY 
MANHATTAN 



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t'i 



By • CHAltLES HEMSTREET . 








Class _^^l_2.1 _ 

Book_^^_2^ 

()opghtN"^B.5_ 



Cm-YRIGHT DEPOSrr. 



The Story of Manhattan 



The 
Story of Manhattan 

By Charles Hemstreet 



r) 




New York 

Charles Scribners Sons 
1901 



3. ' 5, ^ 



THE LIBRAWV OF 

CCJORESS. 
Two CoPiE-a Received 

OCT. 4 1901 

COPVRtGHT ENTRY 



DC!" 



CLASS ^^XXc. 
COPY 3. 



Copyright, igoi, by 
Charles Scribner^ s Sons 



Published October, igoi 



Trow Directory 

Printing and Bookbinding Company 

New York 






■V 



■ v^' 



Preface 



HERE the history of New York City is 
told as a story ^ in few words. The 
effort has beejt to ??iake it accurate and 
interesting. The illustrations are largely from 
old prints and wood engravings. Few dates are 
used, Listead, a Table of Events has been added 
which can readily be referred to. The Index 
to Chapters also gives the years in which the 
story of each chapter occurs. 



Index to Chapters 



c 



Page 

H AFTER I. The Adventures of Henry 
Hudson. From 1609 to 161 2 . . . i 



CHAPTER II. The First Traders on the 

Island. From 161 2 to 1625 .... 10 

CHAPTER III. Peter Minuit, First of the 

Dutch Governors. From 1626 to 1633 18 

CHAPTER IV. Walter Van Twiller, Sec- 
ond of the Dutch Governors. From 
1633 to 1637 25 

CHAPTER V. V^illiam Kieft and the War 

with the Indians. From 1637 to 1647 • 32 

CHAPTER VI. Peter Stuyvesant, the Last 
of the Dutch Governors. From 1647 
to 1664 44 

CHAPTER VII. New York Under the 
English and the Dutch. From 1664 to 
1674 SS 

CHAPTER VIII. Something About the 

Bolting Act. From 1674 to 1688 . . 61 

vii 



Index to Chapters 

Page 

CHAPTER IX. The Stirring Times of 

Jacob Leisler. From 1688 to 169 1 . 66 

CHAPTER X. The Sad End of Jacob 

Leisler. The Year 1691 71 

CHAPTER XI. Governor Fletcher and 

the Privateers. From 1692 to 1696 . 77 



CHAPTER XII. Containing the True 
Life of Captain Kidd. From 1696 to 
1702 



82 



CHAPTER XIII. Lord Cornbury makes 
Himself very Unpopular. From 1702 
to 1708 91 

CHAPTER XIV. Lord Lovelace and 

Robert Hunter. From 1708 to 1720 95 

CHAPTER XV. Governor Burnet and the 

French Traders. From 1720 to 1732 loi 

CHAPTER XVI. The Trial of Zenger, 

the Printer. From 1732 to 1736 . . 106 

CHAPTER XVII. Concerning the Negro 

Plot. From 1736 to 1743 . . . . iii 

viii 



Index to Chapters 



CHAPTER XVIII. The Tragic Death of 
Sir Danvers Osborne. From 1743 to 
1753 . . . . 



Page 



116 



CHAPTER XIX. The Beginning of Dis- 
content. From 1753 to 1763 . . . 121 

CHAPTER XX. The Story of the Stamp 

Act. From 1763 to 1765 . . . . 127 

CHAPTER XXI. The Beginning of 

Revolution. From 1765 to 1770 . . 133 

CHAPTER XXII. Fighting the Tax on 

Tea. From 1770 to 1774 .... 137 

CHAPTER XXIII. The Sons of Liberty 

at Turtle Bay. From 1774 to 1775 . 143 

CHAPTER XXIV. The War of the 

Revolution. In the Year 1775 . . . 147 

CHAPTER XXV. A Battle on Long 

Island. The Year 1776 151 

CHAPTER XXVI. The British Occupy 
New York. The Year 1776 {Con- 
tinued) 156 

ix 



Index to Chapters 

Page 

CHAPTER XXVII. The Battle of Har- 
lem Heights. The Year 1776 {^Con- 
tinued) 164 

CHAPTER XXVIII. The British Fail 
to Sweep Everything Before Them. 
From 1776 to 1777 167 

CHAPTER XXIX. New York a Prison 

House. From 1777 to 1783 . . . 173 

CHAPTER XXX. After the War. From 

1783 to 1788 179 

CHAPTER XXXI. The First President 

of the United States. The Year 1788 186 

CHAPTER XXXII. The Welcome to 

George Washington. The Year 1789 19c 

CHAPTER XXXIII. Concerning the 
Tammany Society and Burr's Bank. 
From 1789 to 1800 197 

CHAPTER XXXIV. More about Hamil- 
ton and Burr. From 1801 to 1804 . 204 

CHAPTER XXXV. Robert Fulton Builds 

a Steam-Boat. From 1805 to 1807 • ^^^ 

X 



Index to Chapters 

Page 

CHAPTER XXXVI. The City Plan. 

From 1807 to 1 8 14 212 

CHAPTER XXX VI I. The Story of the 

Erie Canal. From 1814 to 1825 . . 216 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. The Building of 
the Croton Aqueduct. From 1825 to 
1845 223 

CHAPTER XXXIX. Professor Morse and 

the Telegraph. From 1845 ^^ 1878 . 230 

CHAPTER XL. The Greater New York. 

To the Present Time 235 

TABLE OF EVENTS 237 

INDEX 243 



XI 



List of Illustrations 

Page 

New Amsterdam, 1650 — New York, East 

Side, 1746 I 

The Half Moon in the Highlands of the 

Hudson 5 

Earliest Picture of Manhattan 9 

Indians Trading for Furs 11 

Hall of the States-General of Holland . . 15 

Seal of New Netherland 17 

The Building of the Palisades 20 

Old House in New York, Built 1668 . . 24 

Van Twiller's Defiance 27 

Landing of Dutch Colony on Staten Island. 29 

Governor's Island and the Battery in 1850 . 30 

Dutch Costumes 32 

The Bowling Green in 1.840 ^^ 

Selling Arms to the Indians 38 

Smoking the Pipe of Peace 43 

xiii 



List of Illustrations 

Page 

The Old Stadt Huys of New Amsterdam . 47 

Stuyvesant leaving Fort Amsterdam ... 51 

Petrus Stuyvesant's Tombstone .... 54 

Departure of Nicolls t^(i 

The Dutch Ultimatum 59 

Seal of New York 61^ 

New York in 1700 70 

Sloughter Signing Leisler's Death-warrant . 73 

Bradford's Tombstone 78 

The Reading of Fletcher's Commission. . 81 

Arrest of Captain Kidd 85 

New City Hall in Wall Street 88 

Fort George in 1740 90 

View in Broad Street about 1740. ... 94 

The Slave-Market 98 

Fraunces's Tavern 100 

Dinner at Rip Van Dam's 107 

The Negroes Sentenced 113 

xiv 



List of Illustrations 



Page 

Trinity Church, 1760 . 124 

CofFee-House opposite BowHng Green, Head- 
Quarters of the Sons of Liberty . . 129 

Ferry-House on East River, 1746 . . . 140 

East River Shore, 1750 . 14 r 

Mrs. Murray's Dinner to British Officers . 159 

Howe's Head-Qparters, Beekman House . 162 

Map of Manhattan Island in 1776 . . . 165 

View from the Bowling Green in the Revo- 
lution 169 

Old Sugar-House in Liberty Street, the 

Prison-House of the Revolution . . 174 



North Side of Wall Street East of William 
Street 



i«i 



Celebration of the Adoption of the Consti- 
tution 188 

View of Federal Hall and Part of Broad 

Street, 1796 191 

The John Street Theatre, 178 1 . . . . 194 

XV 



List of Illustrations 

"~^ Page 

Reservoir of Manhattan Water-Works in 

Chambers Street 202 

The Collect Pond . 204 

The Grange, Kingsbridge Road, the Resi- 
dence of Alexander Hamilton . . . 206 

The Clermont, Fulton's First Steam-Boat . 210 

Castle Garden 214 

Landing of Lafayette at Castle Garden . . 217 

View of Park Row, 1825 225 

High Bridge, Croton Aqueduct .... 228 

Crystal Palace 232 



XVI 




iN 







New Torky E. 




\7n, 16^0. 










^ 









5/v^, //-^d. 



CHAPTER I 



The Adventures of 
Henry Hudson 



^o^S^S^S^S^HE long and narrow Island of 
^^^ o o o ^^ Manhattan was a wild and beau- 



T 



°J2r^ °>S'fo °)2,<ro ^jSCo °)'-* Co 



tiful spot in the year 1609. In 
this year a little ship sailed up 
the bay below the island^, took 
the river to the west, and went 
on. In these days there were no tall houses with 
white walls glistening in the sunlight, no church- 
spires, no noisy hum of running trains, no smoke 
to blot out the blue sky. None of these things. 
But in their place were beautiful trees with spread- 
ing branches, stretches of sand-hills, and green 
patches of grass. In the branches of the trees 
there were birds of varied colors, and wandering 
through the tangled undergrowth were many wild 
animals. The people of the island were men and 
women whose skins were quite red ; strong and 



The Story of Manhattan 



healthy people who clothed themselves in the furs of 
animals and made their houses of the trees and vines. 

In this year of 1609, these people gathered on 
the shore of their island and looked with wonder 
at the boat, so different from any they had ever 
seen, as it was swept before the wind up the river. 

The ship was called the Half Moon, and it had 
come all the way from Amsterdam, in the Dutch 
Netherlands. The Netherlands was quite a small 
country in the northern part of Europe, not nearly 
as large as the State of New York, and was usu- 
ally called Holland, as Holland was the most im- 
portant of its several states. But the Dutch owned 
other lands than these. They had islands in the 
Indian Ocean that were rich in spices of every 
sort, and the other European countries needed 
these spices. These islands, being quite close to 
India, were called the East Indies, and the com- 
pany of Dutch merchants who did most of the 
business with them was called the East India Com- 
pany. They had many ships, and the Half Moon 
was one of them. 



The Adventures of Henry Hudson 



It was a long way to the East India Islands from 
Holland, for in these days there was no Suez 
Canal to separate Asia and Africa, and the ships 
had to go around Africa by way of the Cape of 
Good Hope. Besides being a long distance, it was 
a dangerous passage ; for although from its name 
one might take the Cape of Good Hope to be a very 
pleasant place, the winds blew there with great force, 
and the waves rolled so high that they often dashed 
the fragile ships to pieces. 

So the merchants of Holland, and of other coun- 
tries for that matter, were always thinking of a 
shorter course to the East Indies. They knew 
very little of North or South America, and be- 
lieved that these countries were simply islands and 
that it was quite possible that a passage lay through 
them which would make a much nearer and a much 
safer way to the East Indies than around the dread 
Cape of Good Hope. So the East India Company 
built the ship Half Moon and got an Englishman 
named Henry Hudson to take charge of it, and 
started him off to find the short way. Hudson was 

[3] 



The Story of Manhattan 



chosen because he had already made two voyages 
for an EngHsh company, trying to find that same 
short passage, and was supposed to know ever so 
much more about it than anyone else. 

When the Half Moon sailed up the river, Hudson 
was sure that he had found the passage to the Indies, 
and he paid very little attention to the red-skinned 
Indians on the island shore. But when the ship got 
as far as where Albany is now, the water had be- 
come shallow, and the river-banks were so near to- 
gether that Hudson gave up in despair, and said 
that, after all, he had not found the eagerly sought- 
for passage to India, but only a river ! 

Then he turned the ship, sailed back past the isl- 
and, and returned to Holland to tell of his discovery. 
He told of the fur-bearing animals, and of what a 
vast fortune could be made if their skins could only 
be got to Holland, where furs were needed. He 
told of the Indians; and the river which flowed 
past the island he spoke of as " The River of 
the Mountains." 

The directors of the Dutch East India Company 

[4] 









^ 

^ 



The Adventures of Henry Hudson 



were not particularly pleased with Hudson's report. 
They were angry because the short cut to India had 
not been found, and they thought very little of the 
vast storehouse of furs which he had discovered. 
Neither did the Company care a great deal about 
Hudson, for they soon fell out with him, and he 
went back to the English company and made another 
voyage for them, still in search of the short passage 
to India. But in this last voyage, he only succeeded 
in finding a great stretch of water far to the north, 
that can be seen on any map as Hudson's Bay. 
His crew after a time grew angry when he wanted to 
continue his search. There was a mutiny on the 
ship, and Hudson and his son and seven of the sail- 
ors who were his friends were put into a small boat, 
set adrift in the bay to which he had given his name, 
and no trace of them was ever seen again. Long, 
long years after that time, another explorer found 
the passage that Hudson had lost his life searching 
for. It is The Northwest Passage, far up toward the 
North Pole, m the region of perpetual cold and 
night. So Hudson never knew that the passage he 

[7] 



The Story of Manhattan 



had looked for was of no value, and we may be sure 
he had never imagined that there would ever be a 
great city on the island he had discovered. 

The Dutch came to think a great deal of Hudson 
after he was dead. The stream which he had called 
" The River of the Mountains " they named Hud- 
son's River. They even made believe that Hudson 
was a Dutchman — although you will remember he 
was an Englishman — and were in the habit of speak- 
ing of him as " Hendrick " Hudson. 

The Indians were scattered over America in great 
numbers. The tribe on the island were called Man- 
hattans, and from that tribe came the name of the 
Island of Manhattan. All the Indians, no matter 
which tribe they belonged to, looked very much 
alike and acted very much the same. Their eyes 
were dark, and their hair long, straight, and black. 
When they were fighting, they daubed their skins 
with colored muds — war-paint the white men called 
it — and started out on the " war-path." They loved 
to hunt and fish, as well as to fight, and they fought 
and murdered as cruelly and with as little thought 

[81 



The Adventures of Henry Hudson 



as they hunted the wild animals or hooked the fish. 
They held talks which were called " councils," and 
one Indian would speak for hours, while the others 
listened in silence. And when they determined upon 
any action, they carried it out, without a thought of 
how many people were to be killed, or whether they 
were to be killed themselves. 



V ^dPl^fuetcvj ^Tnfiirdani/ 0p(^el/}tnfic(tans , r5<9^^T'=i^tX::S>'*'^ro»-r«^' 




Earliest Picture of Manhattan. 



[9] 



CHAPTER II 



The First Traders 
on the Island 



FOR several years after the return of Hudson, 
Dutch merchants sent their ships to the 
Island of Manhattan, and each ship returned 
to Holland laden with costly furs which the Indians 
had traded for glass beads and strips of gay cloth. 
The Indians cared a great deal more for glittering 
glass and highly colored rags than they did for furs. 
One trader above all others whose name should 
be remembered, was Adrian Block. He came in 
a ship called the Tiger. This ship was anchored 
in the bay close by what is now called the Battery, 
and directly in the course that the ferry-boats take 
when they go to Staten Island. 

On a cold night in November it took fire and 
was burned to the water's edge. Block and those 
who were with him would all have been burned to 
death had they not been strong and hardy men 

[lo] 



The First Traders oji the Island 



who were able to swim ashore in the Ice-cold water. 
Even when they reached the shore they were not 
safe, for there were no houses or places of shelter; 




Indians Trading for Furs. 

the winter was coming on, and the woods were filled 
with wild beasts. But Block and his men very 
soon built houses for themselves ; rude and clumsy 
buildings to look at, but warm and comfortable 



The Story of Manhattan 



within. They were the first houses of white men 
on the Island of Manhattan. If you wish to see 
where they stood, take a walk down Broadway, and 
just before you reach the Bowling Green, on a 
house which is numbered 41, you will find a tablet 
of brass which tells that Block's houses stood on 
that self-same spot. 

As soon as the hard winter was over, Block and 
his men began to build a new ship, and before 
another winter had come they had one larger than 
the Tiger. It was the first vessel to be built in 
the new world, and was called the Restless. 

That same year the Dutch merchants decided 
that they were giving too many glass beads for the 
furs, and that if all the merchants combined into 
one company they might not have to give so many. 
So they did combine, and called themselves the 
United New Netherland Company. It was in this 
way that the name New Netherland first appeared. 

When the first ships of the new company reached 
the island, a house was built for the use of the fur- 
traders, just south of where the Bowling Green 

[12] 



The First Traders on the Island 



Park is. This structure was called Fort Manhat- 
tan. It was of wood, and did not take long to 
build because the traders did not intend to live in it 
a great while. They felt quite sure that all the furs 
would be collected in a few years, and that then the 
island would be abandoned. No one thought at 
that time that the little wooden stockade was the 
commencement of a great city. 

But after a few years it was found that the new 
country was a much richer place than had been sup- 
posed. Shipload after shipload of otter and beaver 
skins were sent across the ocean and still there were 
otters and beavers without number. The fur- 
traders were growing rich, and after a few years 
there came a decided change, when a new company 
was formed in Holland; a great body of men this 
time, who had a vast amount of money to build 
ships and fit them out. This organization was the 
West India Company, and was to battle with Spain 
by land and by sea (for the Netherlands was at war 
with Spain) and was to carry on trade with the 
West Indies, just as the East India ComDany car- 

[13] 



The Story of Manhattan 



ried on trade with the East Indies. As the West 
Indies included every country that could be reached 
by sailing west from Holland, you will see that all 
the Dutch land in America, which land was called 
New Netherland, came under the control of this 
new company. 

The territory called New Netherland was the 
country along the Atlantic Ocean which now makes 
up the States of New Jersey, New York, and Con- 
necticut. But its limits at this time were uncertain 
as it extended inland as far as the Company might 
care to send their colonists. 

Within a few years, the seventy ships sailing 
under the flag of the West India Company, fought 
great battles with the Spaniards, and won almost 
every one of them. There were branches of the 
Company in seven cities of Holland, and the branch 
in Amsterdam had charge of New Netherland. So 
it will be only of the doings of this branch that we 
shall read. Colonists were to be carried to New 
Netherland from Holland ; farms were to be laid 
out and cultivated; cities were to be built, and the 

[h] 



The First Traders on the Island 



West India Company was to have absolute control 
over all, and was to rule all the people. To do 
these things they had authority from the States- 




Hall of the States-General of Holland. 

General of Holland, which was the name given to 
the men who made the laws for that country. The 
Company was to make regular reports to the States- 

[15] 



The Story of Manhattan 



General, and tell of the growth of the colony and 
the progress of the people in it. But as the years 
went on the Company was not as particular as it 
should have been about what it told the States- 
General. 

It was not until the West India Company took 
charge of New Netherland that it was decided to 
make the settlement on the Island of Manhattan a 
city. Up to this time it had been merely a trading 
station. In order to build up a city, the Company 
knew that it would be necessary to send people in 
sufficient numbers so that no matter how many 
were killed by the Indians the settlement would not 
be wiped out. Many inducements were offered, 
and men with their families soon began to flock to 
New Netherland. With the ship that brought the 
first families was Cornelius Jacobsen May, who was 
to live on the Island of Manhattan and look after 
affairs for the Company. Rude houses were set up 
about the fort, and the first street came into exist- 
ence. This is now called Pearl Street. 

Cornelius Jacobsen May cared for the colony for 
[.6] 



The First Traders on the Island 



less than a year, when his place was taken by Will- 
iam Verhulst. Before the year was out, Verhulst 
decided that the new country never would suit him, 
and he sailed away to Holland. Then came in his 
place, in the year 1626, Peter Minuit, under ap- 
pointment as the first Dutch Governor of New 
Netherland. 




Seal of Nezv Netherland. 



['7] 



CHAPTER I II 



Peter Minuit, First 
of the Dutch Governors 



PETER MlNUITwas a large man, of middle 
age, whose hair was turning gray, whose 
eyes were black and dull, and whose man- 
ners were quite coarse. 

The West India Company gave to this Governor 
absolute power over all the Dutch lands in America. 
His power was equal to that of a king ; much more 
than some kings have had. To be sure, in matters 
of extreme importance he was supposed to refer to 
the Company in Holland. But Holland was far 
away, farther away than it is in these days of fast 
steamers and the telegraph, and the Company had 
too many other matters to look after to give much 
thought to New Netherland. 

One of the first acts of Governor Minuit was to 
buy the Island of Manhattan from the Indians, 
giving them in exchange some beads, some brass 

[i8] 



Peter Minuit 



ornaments, some bits of glass and some strips of 
colored cloth ; all of which seemed a rich treasure 
to the Indians, but were in reality worth just 
twenty-four dollars. 

As soon as Minuit had bought the island, he 
organized a government. In authority next to the 
Governor was the koopman, who was secretary of 
the province, and bookkeeper at the Company's 
warehouse, and who worked very hard. Then 
came the schout-fiscal, who worked still harder, be- 
ing half sheriff, half attorney-general, and all cus- 
toms officer. There was also a council of five men 
who looked wise but had very little to say and did 
not dare to disagree with the Governor. 

Although in buying their land Governor Minuit 
had made the Indians his friends, he took care to 
be prepared in case they should change their minds 
and become warlike. He had Kryn Frederick, the 
Company's engineer, build a solid fort on the spot 
where the fur-traders* stockade had stood. This 
he called Fort Amsterdam. It was surrounded by 
cedar palisades, and was large enough to shelter all 

[19] 



The Story of Manhattan 



the people of the Httle colony in case of danger. 
Inside this fort there was a house for the Governor, 
and outside the walls was a warehouse for furs, and 




The Building of the Palisades. 

[ao] 



Peter Minuit 



a mill which was run by horse-power, with a large 
room on the second floor to be used as a church. 

When Minuit had become fairly settled in his 
new colony, he divided the lower part of the island 
into farms, which in those days were called " bou- 
weries." A road which led through these farms 
was named Bouwerie Lane, and the same road is to- 
day known as The Bowery. 

Minuit had been Governor four years, and there 
were 200 persons on the island, when the Dutch 
West India Company, deciding that the colony 
was not increasing fast enough, made a plan for 
giving large tracts of land to any man who would 
go from Holland and take with him fifty persons 
to make their homes in New Netherland. The 
grants of land, which were really large farms, 
stretched away in all directions over the territory of 
New Netherland. But no grant was made on the 
Island of Manhattan, as the Company reserved that 
for itself Each of these farms was called a manor. 
The man who brought colonists from Holland was 
called a patroon. He was the Lord of the Manor, 

[a I] 



The Story of Manhattan 



He had supreme authority over his colonists, who 
cleared the land of the trees, planted seeds, gath- 
ered the ripened grain, and raised cattle which they 
gave to the Lord of the Manor as rent. 

The little town of New Amsterdam was to con- 
tinue as the seat of government, and the Lords of 
the Manors were to act under the direction of the 
Governor. The farms established by these patroons 
were to belong to them and to their families after 
them. 

The one thing that the patroons were not per- 
mitted to do was to collect the furs of animals, for 
these were very valuable and the Company claimed 
them all. 

Before many years had passed there was much 
trouble with these patroons, who did a great deal 
to make themselves rich, and very little for New 
Netherland. They traded in furs, notwithstanding 
they were forbidden to do so, and did all manner 
of things they should not have done. 

Governor Minuit was himself accused of aiding 
the patroons to make money at the expense of the 



Peter Minuit 



West India Company, and of taking his share of 
the profit ; and finally, the Company ordered him to 
return to Holland. The ship in which he sailed 
was wrecked on the coast of England, and Minuit 
was detained and accused of unlawfully trading 
in the territory of the King of England. This was 
not the first time that the English had laid claim 
to the Dutch lands in America. Charles 1. was 
king then, and he said that England owned New 
Netherland because an English king, more than 
a hundred years before Hudson's time, had sent 
John Cabot and his son Sebastian in search of 
new lands, and they had touched the American 
shore. 

But the Dutch called attention to the fact that it 
had been held, time out of mind, that to own a 
country one must not only discover it, but must 
visit it continually, and even buy it from any persons 
who should be settled there. Even if the Cabots 
had discovered the land in America, the Dutch had 
occupied it ever since Hudson's time and had paid 
the Indians for it. 

[23] 



The Story of Manhattan 



Matters were patched up for the time, and 
Minult was permitted to return to Holland. But 
he was no longer Governor of New Netherland, for 
his place had been given to another man whose 
name was Walter Van Twiller. 




Old House in Nezu Torky Built 1668. 



[24] 



CHAPTER IV 



Walter Van Twiller, 

Second of the Dutch 

Governors 



NOW this Walter Van Twiller was a relative 
of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, one of the 
patroons. You will see why the West 
India Company's choice of him for a Governor was 
not by any means a wise choice. For he was soon 
doing exactly what Minuit had done. The only 
difference was that Governor Van Twiller favored 
Van Rensselaer more than he did the other patroons. 

Van Twiller was a stout, round-bodied man, 
with a face much the shape of a full moon. He 
was a sharp trader, having made two voyages to the 
Hudson River in the interest of Van Rensselaer, 
but he knew nothing of governing a colony. 

The ship that brought the new Governor to the 
Island of Manhattan, had also on board a hundred 



The Story of Manhattan 



soldiers, and these were the first soldiers ever sent 
to the island. There was also on the ship Ever- 
ardus Bogardus, the first minister of the colony, as 
well as Adam Rolandsen, the first school-master. 
This school-master had a hard time of it in the new 
country, for not being able to make a living by his 
teaching, he was forced to do all kinds of other 
work. He even took in washing for a time! 

By this time negro slaves were being brought to 
the colony from Africa. They did the household 
work, while the colonists cultivated the fields 
These slaves did most of the work on a new 
wooden church which was set up just outside the 
fort, for the new minister. 

Governor Van Twiller began improving the col- 
ony by having three windmills built, to take the place 
of the horse-mill. But he had them placed in such a 
position that the building in the fort cut off the wind 
from their sails, and the mills were almost useless. 

The Governor did not neglect his own comfort, 
for within Fort Amsterdam he built for himself a 
fine house of brick — finer than any in the little set- 

[a6] 



Walter Van Twiller 



dement — and on one of the bouweries nearest the 
fort, he erected a summer-house. On another bou- 
werie he laid out a tobacco plantation, and had slaves 
paid by the Company to look after it. 




Van Twiller' s Defiance. 

When Van Twiller had been Governor three 
years, he gave to one of the colonists a farm on the 
western side of the city along the Hudson River. 
The colonist died the year after the farm was given 

[27] 



The Story of Manhattan 



him, leaving his widow, Annetje Jans, to care for 
the property. 

Years after, when Queen Anne ruled in England, 
and the English had come into possession of New 
Netherland, she gave the Annetje Jans farm to 
Trinity Church. That was almost two centuries 
ago. What was once a farm is now a great business 
section, crossed and recrossed by streets. Trinity 
Church has held it through all the years, and holds 
it still. 

Close upon the time when the Jans farm was 
given away by Governor Van Twiller, a sailor of note, 
who had visited almost every country in the world, 
founded a colony on Staten Island. This sailor 
was Captain David Pietersen De Vries. Staten 
Island attracted him because of its beauty. After 
the colony was well started, De Vries travelled be- 
tween New Netherland and Holland, and he will be 
met with again in this story. 

Although Governor Van Twiller did not do 
much for the colonists, he was very careful to look 
after his own affairs. He bought from the Indians, 

[28] 



The Story of Manhattan 



for some goods of small value, the little spot now 
called Governor's Island; which was then known as 
Nut Island, because of the many nut-trees that 
grew there. There is little doubt but that Gov- 



"i^l'*''^"' 



"^^mMy \ ^ 




Governor'' 5 Islarid arid the Battery in l8jO. 

ernor's Island was once a part of Long Island. It 
is separated from it now by a deep arm of water 
called Buttermilk Channel. The channel was so 
narrow and so shallow in Van Twiller's time that 
the cattle could wade across it. It was given its 

[30] 



Walter Van Twiller 



name more than a hundred years ago, from boats 
which drew very Httle water, and were the only 
craft able to get through the channel, and which 
took buttermilk from Long Island to the markets 
of New York. 

Van Twiller bought the islands now known as 
Randall's and Ward's Islands, and these, with some 
others, made him the richest landholder in the 
colony. On his islands he raised cattle, and on his 
farm tobacco. 

Many of the colonists did not take kindly to 
Governor Van Twiller's methods, and among them 
was Van Dincklagen, the schout-fiscal. He told 
the Governor that it was very evident that he was 
putting forth every effort to enrich himself at the 
expense of everybody else, just as Minuit had done. 
The Governor became very angry. He told the 
schout-fiscal not to expect any more salary, that it 
would be stopped from that minute. This did not 
worry the schout-fiscal much, as he had not been paid 
his salary in three years ! But Van Twiller did not 
stop there. He sent the schout-fiscal as a prisoner 

[31] 



The Story of Manhattan 



to Holland, which was a foolish thing for him to 
do. For the prisoner pleaded his own cause to 
such good effect that before the end of the year 
1637, Van Twiller was recalled to Holland, after 
he had governed New Netherland for four years, 
very much to his own interest, and very much 
against the interest of the West India Company 
and everybody else. 







Dutch Costumes, 



Lr-] 



CHAPTER V 



William Kieft and the 
War with the Indians 



A DREARY winter came and went, and just 
as the first signs of spring showed in the 
fields that closed about the fort, a ship 
sailed up the bay, bringing a stranger to the 
province. 

This was William Kieft, the new Governor of 
New Netherland. 

He was a blustering man, who became very angry 
when anyone disagreed with him, and who very soon 
was known as " William the Testy." He made no 
effort to make the Indians his friends, and the result 
was that much of his rule of ten years was a term of 
bloody warfare. 

The affairs of the Company had been sadly 
neglected by Governor Van Twiller, and Govern- 
or Kieft, in a nervous, testy, energetic fashion 
set about remedying them. The fort was al- 

[33] 



The Story of Manhattan 



most in ruins from neglect. The church was in 
Httle better condition. The mills were so out of 
repair that even if the wind could have reached 
them they could not have been made to do their 
work properly. There were smugglers who carried 
away furs without even a thought of the koopman, 
who was waiting to record the duties which should 
have been paid on them. There were those who 
defied all law and order, and sold guns and powder 
and liquor to the Indians, regardless of the fact 
that the penalty for doing so was death. For guns 
and liquor had been found to be dangerous things 
to put in savage hands. 

Governor Kieft rebuilt the houses, put down all 
smugglers, and set matters in New Amsterdam in 
good working order generally. The patroon sys- 
tem of peopling the colony had proven a total fail- 
ure. So, soon after Kieft came, the West India 
Company decided on another plan. They furnished 
free passage to anyone who promised to cultivate 
land in the new country. In this way there would 
be no patroons to act as masters. Each man would 

[34l 



William Kieft 



own his land, and could come and go as he saw fit. 
This brought many colonists. 

At this time there were really only two well- 
defined roads on the Island of Manhattan. One 




The Bowling Green in 1840. 

Stretched up through the island and led to the out- 
lying farms and afterward became The Bowery ; the 
second led along the water-side, and is to-day Pearl 
Street. Bowling Green, although it was not called 
Bowling Green then, was the open space in front of 

[35] 



The Story of Manhattan 



the fort where the people gathered on hoHdays. In 
the fourth year of Governor Kieft's rule, he con- 
ceived the idea of holding fairs in this open space, 
where fine cows and fat pigs could be exhibited. 
These fairs attracted so many visitors from distant 
parts of the colony, that the Governor had a large 
stone house built, with a roof running up steep to a 
peak, in regular, step-like form. This was called a 
tavern, and could accommodate all the visitors. In 
after years it became the first City Hall. 

If you wish to stand where this building was, you 
must go to the head of Coenties Slip, in Pearl 
Street. On the building which is there now you 
will see a bronze tablet which tells all about the old 
Stadt Huys. 

The church that Walter Van Twiller had built 
was Httle better than a barn. The minister wanted 
a new one. So did his congregation. Governor 
Kieft decided that there should be one of stone, and 
that it should be built inside the fort. There was 
a question as how to secure the money to build it. 
Kieft gave a small amount, as did other colonists, 

[36] 



William Kieft 



but there was not enough. Fortunately, just at this 
time, a daughter of Bogardus, the minister, was mar- 
ried. At the wedding, when the guests were in good 
humor, a subscription-Hst was handed out. The 
guests tried to outdo one another in subscribing 
money for the new church. Next day some of the 
subscribers were sorry they had agreed to give so 
much, but the Governor accepted no excuses and 
insisted on the money. It was collected, and the 
church was built. Close upon this time Kieft de- 
cided that he needed money for other work, and he 
told the Indians of the province that he expected 
something from them. Of course the Indians had 
no such money as we have in these days. They 
used instead beads, very handsome and made from 
clam-shells. These beads were arranged on strings. 
There were black ones and white ones, and the 
black were worth twice as much as the white. The 
Indians did not see why they should give money 
to the Governor. Kieft explained that it was to 
pay for the protection given to them by the Dutch. 
Then the Indians understood less than ever, for the 

[37] 



The Story of Manhattan 



Dutch had never done anything for them except to 
give them as Httle as they could for their valuable 
furs. The Indians hated Kieft, and this act of his 




Sellifig Arms to the Indians. 

made their hatred more bitter. A war-cloud was 
gathering. The Indians were well prepared for war, 
for they had been supplied with guns, with bullets, 
and with powder by those greedy Dutchmen, the 

[38] 



William Kieft 



smugglers, who thought more of their personal 
gains than of the safety of the colonists. 

Over on Staten Island about this time, an Indian 
stole several hogs from a colonist. Kieft's soldiers 
found the tribe to which the Indian belonged, and 
in revenge killed ten Indian warriors. After this 
the war-cloud grew darker. 

Kieft was anxious that there should be war. But 
there were many of the colonists who did all in their 
power to prevent it. The men who wanted peace 
were headed by that able sailor. Captain David Piet- 
ersen De Vries, who had founded a colony on Staten 
Island. A council of twelve men was formed to 
decide whether there should be peace or war. This 
council declared that there should be no war. They 
then began to look into public affairs, for they 
thought it all wrong that Kieft should have the only- 
voice in the management. The Governor regretted 
having called together the twelve men. But he 
soon got rid of them, and to show that he was still 
absolute ruler, he decided to make war upon the 
Indians. Then the war-cloud broke. 

[39] 



The Story of Manhattan 



Those Indians who lived nearest New Amster- 
dam were fighting with another tribe called the 
Mohawks. The nearby Indians thought that since 
Kieft had been paid to protect them, he should do 
so now. So they gathered, some on the Island of 
Manhattan, and some on the nearby shore of New 
Jersey. But instead of protecting them, Kieft sent 
his soldiers against these friendly Indians, and in the 
night killed them as they slept. The soldiers came 
so suddenly upon the Indians, sleeping peacefully 
on the Jersey shore, and slew them so quickly in the 
darkness, that the Indians believed they had been 
attacked by the unfriendly tribe. One Indian, with 
his squaw, made his way to the fort. He was met 
at the gate by De Vries. " Save us," he cried, " the 
Mohawks have fallen upon us, and have killed all 
our people." But De Vries answered, sadly, " No 
Indian has done this. It is the Dutch who have 
killed your people." And he pointed toward the 
deep woods close by. " Go there for safety, but do 
not come here." 

This was not war. It was murder. A cruel, 

[40] 



William Kieft 



treacherous act, which the greater number of colo- 
nists condemned and the record of which is a dark 
stain on the memory of William Kieft. 

After this, all the Indians within the border of 
New Netherland combined. Colonists were shot as 
they worked in the fields. Cattle were driven away. 
Houses were robbed and burned. Women and 
children were dragged into captivity. The war 
raged fiercely for three years. By this time Ind- 
ians and colonists were worn out. Then the war 
ended. But scarcely a hundred men were left 
on the Island of Manhattan. The country was 
a waste. 

A strong fence had been built across the island, 
to keep what cattle remained within bounds. This 
fence marked the extreme limit of the settlement of 
New Amsterdam. The fence in time gave place 
to a wall, and when in still later years the wall was 
demolished and a street laid out where it had been, 
the thoroughfare was called Wall Street, and re- 
mains so to this day. 

While the entire province was in a very bad way, 

[41] 



The Story of Manhattan 



and the people suffering on every side, Governor 
Kieft sent to the West India Company in Hol- 
land his version of the war. He showed him- 
self to be all in the right, and proved, to his own 
satisfaction, that the province was in a fairly good 
condition ; though during all the years he had 
been Governor he had not once left the settlement 
on the Island of Manhattan to look after other 
parts. 

Certain of the colonists also sent a report to Hol- 
land. Theirs being much nearer the truth, carried 
such weight with it, that the West India Company 
decided on the immediate recall of Governor Kieft, 
who had done so much injury to the colony, and 
had shown himself to be utterly incapable of gov- 
erning. 

Kieft returned to Holland in a ship that was 
packed from stem to stern with the finest of furs. 
The ship was wrecked at sea. Kieft was drowned, 
and the furs were lost. 

In the same ship was Everardus Bogardus (the 
minister who had married Annetje Jans), who was 

[42] 



William Kieft 



on his way to Holland on a mission relating to his 
church. The people of New Amsterdam mourned 
for their minister, but there was little sorrow felt for 
the Governor who had plunged the colony in war by 
his obstinate and cruel temper. 




--Sl}~^;?>^'tiiC^lfi#o't; I i . - 



Smoking the Pipe of Peace. 



[43] 



CHAPTER VI 



Peter Stuyvesant, the 

Last of the Dutch 

Governors 



IT was a gay day for the little colony of New 
Amsterdam, that May morning in the year 
1647, when a one-legged man landed at the 
lower part of the island, and stumped his way up 
the path that led to the fort. Not only everyone 
that lived in the town gathered there, but everyone 
on the island, and many from more distant parts. 
There were Indians, too, who walked sedately, their 
quiet serenity in strange contrast to the colonists, 
who yelled and shouted for joy, and clapped their 
hands at every salute from the guns. And when 
the fort was reached (it was only a few steps from 
the river-bank) the man with the wooden leg 
turned to those who followed him. The guns were 
silent, and the people stood still. 

[44] 



Peter Stuyvesant 



" I shall govern you," said he, " as a father does 
his children." 

Then there were more shouts, and more booming 
of cannon, and the name of Peter Stuyvesant was 
on every tongue. For the man with a wooden leg 
was Peter Stuyvesant, the new Governor appointed 
by the West India Company, and not one of those 
who shouted that day had an idea that he was to be 
the last of the Dutch governors. 

Stuyvesant had long been in the employ of the 
West India Company, and his leg had been shot 
off in a battle while he was in their service. 

He was a stern man, with a bad temper, and 
seemed to have made it a point in life never to 
yield to anyone in anything. He ruled in the way 
he thought best, and he let it always be under- 
stood that he did not care much for the advice 
of others. He did what he could for the people 
to make their life as happy as possible. Of course 
he had orders from the West India Company that 
he was bound to obey, and these orders did not 
always please the people. But his rule was just, 

[45] 



The Story of Manhattan 



and he was the most satisfactory of all the Dutch 
governors. 

Stuyvesant's first work was to put the city in 
better condition. He did this by having the vacant 
lots about the fort either built upon or cleared. 
The hog-pens which had been in front of the 
houses were taken away. All the fences were put in 
repair, and where weeds had grown rank, they were 
replaced by pretty gardens. These, and a great 
many other things he did, until the town took on 
quite a new air. 

Up to this time the people had been ruled 
by governors who did all things just as they 
saw fit. They became tired of this, and com- 
plained so much that the Company in Holland 
decided to make a change. So after Stuyve- 
sant had been Governor for a while, some other 
officers were appointed to help him. There was 
one officer called a schout, very much the same 
as a mayor is in these days. Two others were 
called burgomasters, and five others were called 
schepens. The burgomasters and the schepens 

[46] 



Peter Stuyvesant 



presided over the trials, in the stone tavern which 
Governor Kieft had built at Coenties Slip, and 







u 










The Old Stadt Huys of New Amsterdam. 

which had now become the Stadt Huys or City 
Hall. 

With the appointment of these officers, New 

[47] 



The Story of Manhattan 



Amsterdam became a city. But as Governor Stuy- 
vesant named the officers and as he plainly told them 
that they must not interfere with his orders, and as 
he still had his own way, regardless of what the of- 
ficers said and did, the colony was little different as 
a city from what it had been before. 

In the fall of this year, 1652, war was declared 
between England and Holland. Stuyvesant, fearing 
that the English in New England, which was on 
the borders of New Netherland, would attack the 
city, set about fortifying it. The fence that Gov- 
ernor Kieft had built so that the cattle could not 
wander away was changed into a wall that extended 
from river to river. The fort was repaired, and a 
strong body of citizens mounted guard by day and 
by night. Everything was prepared for an attack. 
But the enemy did not come after all. 

Matters went along quietly enough for three years, 
until some Swedes on the Delaware River began to 
build houses on Dutch lands. Then Stuyvesant, 
with 160 men, in seven ships^ sailed around to 
the Delaware River, and conquered the Swedes. 

[48] 



Peter Stuyvesant 



It was quite ten years since the Indian war, and 
Stuyvesant, by his kindness, had made friends or 
the savages, and had come to be called their " great 
friend." But soon after he left to make war on the 
Swedes, one of the colonists killed an Indian. In 
a few days there was an uprising of Indian tribes. 
In New Jersey and on Staten Island they murdered 
colonists, burned houses, and laid farms waste. 
Stuyvesant hurriedly returned. He made peace 
with the Indians, treating them kindly, as though 
there had never been any trouble. He gave them 
presents, and used such gentle measures that the 
war which had threatened to be so serious ended 
abruptly. 

In the calmer days that followed, attention was 
given to improvements in the city. By this time 
there were a thousand persons on the island. 
Streets were nicely laid out, and the city of New 
Amsterdam grew, day by day. It was a tiny place 
still, however, for it all lay below the present Wall 
Street. Some distance beyond the city wall was a 
fenced-in pasture for cattle, which was later to be- 

[49] 



The Story of Manhattan 



come The Common, and still later City Hall Park. 
Farther on there was a wide lake, so deep that it 
was thought to be bottomless. On its banks were 
a vast heap of oyster-shells, where an Indian village 
had been. This place was called Kalch-hook, or 
Shell-point. Afterward it was shortened to The 
Kalch, and in time was called The Collect. The 
lake was called Collect Lake. There is no trace 
of it to-day, for it was filled in, and the Tombs 
Prison now stands upon the spot. 

The entire province was in a flourishing con- 
dition, but danger was near. The English had 
long looked with covetous eye upon the possessions 
of the Dutch in America. The English, it must be 
remembered, claimed not only New Netherland, 
but a great part of the American continent, on the 
plea that the Cabots had discovered it. 

After all this long time, when the Cabots had 
been forgotten by most persons, in the year 1664, 
Charles II. decided that the English claim was just, 
and gave New Netherland to his brother James, 
Duke of York. The Duke of York at once sent 

[so] 



Peter Srr^^^ esant 

four ships filled with soldi ^ ^.aRe possession of 

his property. 

When the English war-ships sailed up the bay, 
the town was ill-protected, and the people had no 
desire to resist, for Stuyvesant and the West India 
Company had been most strict, and they hoped to 
be more free under English rule. Stuyvesant, with 
scarcely a supporter, stood firm and unyielding. 
He had no thought of submitting to superior force. 
" I would rather be carried out dead," he ex- 
claimed. But when at length he realized that he 
was absolutely alone, and that there were no means 
of defence for the city, he surrendered. 

On this same morning of September 8, 1664, 
Stuyvesant, with his head bowed sadly, marched at 
the head of his soldiers out of Fort Amsterdam, 
with flags flying and drums beating. And the 
English soldiers, who had landed, and were waiting 
a little way off, entered the fort with l/ieir flags fly- 
mg and f/ieir drums beating. 

So the city of New Amsterdam became the city of 
New York, and the province of New Netherland 



The Story 



Manhattan 



became the province oi NTew York, and Fort Am- 
sterdam became Fort James — all this in honor of 
James, Duke of York, who now came into posses- 
sion. 

Stuyvesant went to Holland to explain why he 
had surrendered New Netherland. But he came 
back again, and years after he died in the little 
Bouwerie Village which he had built. In St. 
Mark's Church to this day may be seen a tablet 
which tells that the body of the last Dutch Gov- 
ernor lies buried there. 




[54] 



CHAPTER VII 



New York under the Eng- 
lish and the Dutch 



SO now the conquered province had come into 
the possession of the Duke of York, and 
Colonel Richard NIcolls, who was In com- 
mand of the English soldiers, took charge. This first 
English Governor appeared anxious to make all the 
people his friends. He made Thomas Willett 
Mayor, and Willett being very popular, all the citi- 
zens rejoiced, and said the new Governor was a fine 
man. During three years Colonel NIcolls hu- 
mored the people so much that they were well sat- 
isfied. At the end of that time he had grown tired 
of the new country, and asked to be relieved. The 
people were really sorry when he returned to Eng- 
land and Francis Lovelace took his place. 

Governor Lovelace did not get along so well. 
He was a man of harsh manner, who did not have 
the patience or the inclination to flatter with fine 

[55] 



The Story of Manhattan 



promises. Lovelace wanted everyone to under- 
stand that he was master. Very soon, when the 
people said they thought they should have the 
right to control their own affairs, the Governor 




Departure of NicoIIs. 

told them that he did not think it was best for 
them to have too much to do with the governing 
of the city. But he did some things that pleased 
the people. For one thing, he brought about the 

[56] 



New York under the English and Dutch 



custom of having merchants meet once a week at 
a bridge which crossed Broad Street at the present 
Exchange Place. There is no bridge there now, 
but in those days it was necessary, for Broad Street 
was a ditch which extended from the river almost 
to Wall Street. But though the ditch has been 
filled up, and the bridge is gone, the locality has 
ever since been one where merchants have gath- 
ered. 

The Governor also had a messenger make regu- 
lar trips to Boston with letters, which was the first 
mail route from the city. Matters were going 
along nicely when trouble arose between England 
and Holland again. Then the Dutch decided that 
it would be a good time to get back their lost prov- 
ince of New Netherland. The English in New 
York heard of this, and made all sorts of warlike 
preparations. But the Dutch were so long in com- 
ing that the preparations for war were given up. 
Finally the Dutch ships did arrive unexpectedly, 
sailing up the bay one morning in the month of 
July, in the year 1673. Governor Lovelace was in 

[57] 



The Story of Manhattan 



a distant part of the colony, and the city had been 
left under the care of Captain John Manning. 

Manning was in despair. He knew full well 
that there was no hope of defending the city suc- 
cessfully. He sent a messenger dashing off to the 
Governor, and he sent another to the Dutch ships to 
ask what they were doing in the bay, just as though 
he did not know. The Dutch sent word back that 
the city must be surrendered to them that same 
day. And to show they meant what was said, the 
Dutch admiral despatched one of his captains, An- 
thony Colve by name, who landed with 600 men. 
The Dutch captain agreed that if the English left 
the fort without a show of resistance, they could do 
so with the honors of war and without interference. 
Then he and his soldiers tramped down the road 
that is now Broadway. The English marched out 
of the fort, and the Dutch marched in ; just as nine 
years before the Dutch had marched out and the 
English had marched in. 

When the King in England heard that New 
York had been so easily captured, all the blame 

[58] 



New York under the English and Dutch 



was placed on Captain Manning, and after a time 
you will see what became of him. 

Captain Colve took charge of the reconquered 




The Dutch Ultimatum. 



province. He began industriously to undo all that 
the English had done. The province was again 
named New Netherland. The city was called New 

[59] 



The Story of Manhattan 



Orange, in honor of the Prince of Orange — a prince 
of Holland, who in a few years was to marry a 
daughter of the Duke of York, and who in a few 
more years was to be King of England under the 
title of William III. 

Captain Colve put the fort in good condition, 
repaired the city wall, made a soldier of every man 
and drilled them every day. He had the city gates 
locked at night, and put a guard at them to see 
that no one came in or passed out. 

In less than a year, when the city was in shape 
to be defended, the English and the Dutch made 
up their quarrel. The province of New Nether- 
land was returned to the English, and became again 
the province of New York, and the Dutch soldiers 
left the Island of Manhattan, never again to return 
to it in warlike array. 



[60] 



CHAPTER VIII 



Something about the 
Bolting Act 



EDMUND ANDROS was sent to govern 
New York for the Duke of York. The 
people complained a good deal because he 
acted as though he were a king with absolute 
power. They asked that they have some voice in 
the direction of their affairs. They got up a peti- 
tion and sent it to the Duke in England. 

"What do the people want?" said the Duke. 
" If they are not satisfied, they can always appeal to 
me." He did not see that they had just appealed 
to him, and in vain. 

Captain Manning, who had been in charge of 
the province when the Dutch recaptured it, came 
again to New York with Andros. Many who had 
lost their property by the coming of the Dutch^ 
complained bitterly to Andros. So the Governor, 
and his council, and the officers of the city held 

[6i] 



The Story of Manhattan 



many conferences, with the result that Captain 
Manning was arrested. He was found guilty of 
cowardice, and his sword was broken in front of the 
Stadt Huys in the presence of the citizens, and 
he was declared, on the good authority of King 
Charles II., unfit ever again to hold public office. 

Although disgraced, Captain Manning did not 
seem to care much. He owned a beautiful wooded 
island in the East River, to which he now retired. 
He was wealthy, and there he lived and entertained 
royally during the remainder of his life. 

Andros did many things for the general good. 
When he had been Governor four years, and when 
the most important product of trade was flour, a 
law was made by which no one was permitted to 
make flour outside of the city. This was called 
the Bolting Act. Flour cannot be made unless it 
is " bolted " — or has the bran taken from it — and so 
the act came by its name. The right to grind all 
the grain into flour may not now seem very import- 
ant, but it really was, for it brought all the trade to 
the city. So you see the Bolting Act was a very 

[6a] 



Something about the Bolting Act 



good thing for the city, and very bad for the peo- 
ple who did not live in the city. The city folks 
became very prosperous indeed, but the others, 
because they could not make or sell flour, became 
poorer day by day. 

This went on for sixteen years, and then the law 
came to an end. But by that time all the business 
of the entire province had 
centred in the city so firmly 
that it could not be drawn 




away. 

So, after this, when you 
look at a picture of the Seal of 
New York, and see a wind- 
mill and two barrels of flour, you will remember 
that the windmill sails worked the mill, and the 
barrels were filled with flour v/hich laid the founda- 
tion of the city's fortunes ; and were put on the seal 
so that this fact would always be remembered. The 
beavers on the seal suggest the early days when the 
trade in beaver skins made a city possible. At one 
time there was a crown on the seal — a king's crown 

[63] 



The Story of Manhattan 



— but that gave way to an eagle when the English 
King no longer had a claim on New York. 

Now that the province was prosperous, one 
would think that the people would have been quite 
happy. But they were not. They did not like 
Governor Andros because they thought that he 
taxed them too heavily, and they sent so many 
petitions to the Duke of York that, in 1681, 
Andros was recalled, and Colonel Thomas Dongan 
was appointed the new Governor. A few years 
later, when the Duke of York became King James 
II., he remembered how carefully Andros had car- 
ried out his orders, and appointed him Governor of 
New England ; where he conducted matters so 
much to the satisfaction of his King that he earned 
the title of "The Tyrant of New England." 

When Governor Dongan reached the city and 
announced that the Duke had instructed him to let 
the people have something to say as to how they 
should be governed, he was joyfully received. It 
really seemed now that everything was going to be 
satisfactory. But there came a sudden check. 

[64] 



Something about the Bolting Act 



Two years after Dongan became Governor, the 
Duke of York was made King of England. He 
thereupon ordered Dongan to make all the laws 
himself, without regard to what the people did or 
did not want. The power to make the laws was a 
great power, but Governor Dongan was a fair and 
just man and did not abuse it. The year after this 
he granted a charter to the city, known ever since 
as the Dongan Charter, which was so just that it is 
still the base on which the rights of citizens rest. 

But while Dongan was popular with the King's 
subjects, he became unpopular with the King. This 
was because he stood in the way of the plans of his 
royal master whenever those plans interfered with 
the good of the people. He must have known 
what the result would be. Whether he knew it or 
not, it came in the year 1688. The King joined 
the colony of New England and the colony of 
New York, and called this united territory New 
England. Dongan then ceased to be Governor, 
having ruled the province well. 



[65] 



CHAPTER IX 



The Stirring Times 
of Jacob Leisler 

SIR EDMUND ANDROS, who, you will 
remember, had been appointed Governor of 
New England, had been knighted for obey- 
ing the King's commands. He now became Gov- 
ernor of the united provinces. He made his home 
in Boston, and left the care of New York to his 
deputy, Francis Nicholson. In this year a son was 
born to the English King, and the people rejoiced. 
But these were stormy times in England, for King 
James II. was a tyrant who ordered a great many of 
his subjects killed when they refused to believe in 
what he believed. And the people, grown weary 
and heartsick, overthrew King James and put Will- 
iam III. on the throne. So the sights and sounds 
of rejoicing over the birth of a prince were scarcely 
over, when the news came that James was no longer 
King, and New York was soon in a state of confusion. 

[66] 



The Stirring Times of Jacob Leisler 



In what had been New England before the prov- 
inces were united, the people hated Andros. They 
arrested him. And as they had never been in favor 
of uniting New England and New York, they re- 
stored their old officers and disunited the two prov- 
inces, Andros was sent a prisoner to England to give 
an account of his doings to King William, and New 
York was left without a Governor. The men who 
had served under King James insisted that they re- 
main in charge of the province until King William 
sent new officers to replace them. But most of 
them wanted to have all who had had anything to 
do with King James put out of office at once. So 
those who wanted this change took charge of the 
city, and chose as their leader a citizen named Jacob 
Leisler. More than twenty years before, this Jacob 
Leisler had come from Holland as a soldier of the 
West India Company. He had left the service and 
had become a wealthy merchant. He had a rude 
manner, and but little education. He looked upon 
as an enemy, and as an enemy of King William, 
every man who did not think as he did. 

[67] 



The Story of Manhattan 



The mass of the people now gathered around 
Leisler and became known as the Leislerian party. 
They selected a number of citizens, calling them 
the Committee of Safety, and the committee gave 
Leisler power to see that peace was preserved. 
Those who were opposed to Leisler, but who, just 
as strongly as he, favored King William, were called 
the anti-Leislerian party. These last were headed 
by Francis Nicholson, who had watched over the 
colony for Governor Andros. Nicholson finding 
that he had few followers, sailed for England. 

Leisler had the fortifications repaired, and a 
battery of guns set up outside the fort. This is the 
battery which gave to the present locality its name, 
though all signs of guns have disappeared. 

Leisler had an adviser in Jacob Milborne, his 
son-in-law, who wrote his letters, and counselled 
him in every way. 

In December came a messenger from King Will- 
iam, with a commission for whoever was in charge 
of the city, to act until further orders. Leisler ob- 
tained possession of the commission. He became 

[68] 



The Stirring Times of Jacob Leisler 



bolder after this, and showed such a disposition to 
do just as he pleased, that he made enemies of a 
great many of his friends. Advised by Milborne, 
he made laws, and imprisoned all those who refused 
to obey them or to recognize his authority. Day by 
day those who were opposed to Leisler and Mil- 
borne grew in numbers. Street riots occurred, and 
several persons were injured. Leisler's life was 
threatened, and he went about attended by a guard 
of soldiers. Finally Nicholas Bayard, who had been 
Mayor, and who was looked upon as leader of the 
anti-Leislerian party, was put in prison with some 
others. Bayard would doubtless have been ex- 
ecuted had he not written an humble letter to 
Leisler saying that he had been in the wrong and 
Leisler in the right. But he wrote to save his 
life, not that he really believed himself to be in 
the wrong. He did save his life, but he was kept 
in jail. 

Leisler's enemies continued active. They had a 
powerful friend in Francis Nicholson, who had 
reached England and had been received with favor 

[69] 



The Story of Manhattan 



there. He hated Leisler, and denounced him as a 
traitor before King William. 

Leisler, after he had taken charge of the province, 
wrote to the King, but his letter was written in im- 
perfect English and was not understood. Matters 
were in a bad state, and were daily becoming worse, 
when the King appointed Henry Sloughter Gov- 
ernor of New York. 










Nezv 7~ork in lyoo. 



'tsr' 



M 



CHAPTER X 



The Sad End of Jacob 
Leisler 



THIS Henry Sloughter was not a good 
choice. He was a worthless man, who 
had travelled a great deal, and had spent 
other people's money whenever he could get it. 
Now, when he could find no one in England to 
supply him with money, he took the post of Gov- 
ernor of New York, and his only thought was 
how much money he could wring from the people. 
The enemies of Leisler rejoiced at his coming, for 
they knew that it meant the downfall of Leisler. 

Sloughter sailed for New York with a body of 
soldiers, but his ship was tossed about by the sea, 
and carried far out of its course, so that the ship 
of his assistant. Major Richard Ingoldsby, arrived 
first. But Leisler refused to give up command un- 
til Sloughter came. This was three months later, 
and during that time Ingoldsby and his soldiers did 

[71] 



The Story of Manhattan 



all they could to harass Leisler, who held posses- 
sion of the little fort, and refused to give it up un- 
til he saw the King's order. 

When Sloughter arrived, members of the party 
opposed to Leisler hurried on board the vessel, 
and escorted him to the City Hall, where at mid- 
night he took the oath of office. 

Within a few days Governor Sloughter and his 
friends met in the City Hall, where the council of 
the new Governor was sworn in — a council every 
member of which was an enemy of Leisler. Then 
Leisler was arrested, with his son-in-law, Milborne, 
and both were condemned to death as rebels. But 
the Governor was afraid of displeasing the King by 
putting Leisler to death, for, after all, Leisler was 
the man who had been the first to recognize the 
authority of King William in New York. He re- 
fused to sign the death-warrant. But the enemies 
of Leisler were not content. Nicholas Bayard, who 
had become more than ever bitter because he had 
been kept for thirteen months in prison, was anx- 
ious for revenge. The council urged the Governor 

in 




Slaughter Signing Leiskr' s Death-warrant. 



The Story of Manhattan 



to carry out the sentence, and he finally signed the 
death-warrant. Two days later Leisler and Mil- 
borne were led to execution. The scaffold had 
been erected in Leisler's own garden, close by 
where the post-office is now. The people thronged 
about it, standing in the cold, drizzling rain. They 
wept, for many of them had been on the side of 
Leisler. 

Leisler ascended the scaffold with firm step, and 
looked at the people he had tried to serve. 

" What I have done has been for the good of 
my country," he said, sadly. " I forgive my ene- 
mies, as I hope to be forgiven." 

And so he died ; believing that he had done his 
duty. 

Milborne was full of hate for those who caused 
his death. Close by the scaffold stood Robert 
Livingston, a citizen who had always been strongly 
opposed to Leisler. To this man Milborne point- 
ed, and fiercely cried : 

" You have caused my death. For this I will im- 
peach you before the Bar of God." And so he died. 

[74] 



The Sad End of Jacob Leisler 



The bodies of both men were Interred close by 
the scaffold. 

Four years later the English Parliament declared 
that Leisler had acted under the KIng*s command, 
and had therefore been In the right, after all. So 
tardy justice was done to Leisler's memory. 

After the death of Leisler, there was an end of 
open revolt, and affairs were reasonably quiet, al- 
though It was many a long year before the rancor 
of the late struggle and the bitter hatred of the 
friends and enemies of Leisler died out. 

Order was restored, and attention was turned to 
public Improvement. New streets were laid out, 
and markets were built. In front of the City Hall, 
by the water-side of Coentles Slip, there were set up 
a whipping-post, a cage, a pillory, and a ducking- 
block ; which were to serve as warnings to evil- 
doers, and to be used In case the warning was not 
effective. 

But Sloughter did not live to see these improve- 
ments completed. A few months after his arrival 
he died suddenly, so suddenly that there was a sug- 

[75] 



The Story of Manhattan 



gestlon that he had been poisoned by some friend 
of Leisler. But it was proven that his death was a 
natural one, and his body was placed in a vault next 
to that of Peter Stuyvesant, in the Bouwerie Village 
church-yard. 



[76] 



CHAPTER XI 



Governor Fletcher 
and the Privateers 



WHEN Benjamin Fletcher became the 
next Governor of New York, in the 
month of August, 1692, the people 
gave a great public dinner in his honor, and there 
were expressions of deep joy that so wise and 
good and pious a man had been sent to rule over 
them. 

But Governor Fletcher soon came to be disliked. 
He tried by every means to enrich himself at the 
public expense. More than that, he wished to 
make the Church of England the only church of 
the province, and to have the English language the 
only language spoken. All of which the people 
did not like, for the majority of them still spoke 
the Dutch language and attended the Dutch 
church. 

Governor Fletcher had great trouble in getting 

[77] 



The Story of Manhattan 



the Assembly (the body of men who helped him to 
govern the province) to agree with him, but he 
finally won them over in the matter of the Church 
of England. One of the churches built at this time 
was Trinity Church. It was a quaint, square build- 
ing, with a tall spire — not the Trinity Church of 
this day, although it stood on the same spot. 



re llV^ llio Uoc/n of Mr , Wfl 
nftttr, -^V Xpa^ted tkijf L,rf V Mat/J ^ 
17,52' a W 92Tt:Aj-j^t He was^ Wurti'i' 
re mUM £»* Ia33d> in 1 66 c ; ' 



sRrr^per-iftrtJjtsrGoverTiTrieTrt fer -qp 



-fkte: 



laid oat -He | 
fijr-qpwjrd* J 



uVmoreiEeJ 



,qtm.c Torn out 

--', Jie iefe, ilia' 

J OJpe^ of A 



1 1¥ep«sre tomeftc^'CrrGOD s tKen y«ju aril 



Bradford'' s Tombsto?ie. 

[78] 



Governor Fletcher and the Privateers 



In the year after Fletcher came, the first printing- 
press was set up in the city by William Bradford, 
who came from Philadelphia for that purpose. He 
became the public printer, and afterward issued the 
first newspaper. He did a great deal for the gen- 
eral good, and when he died he was buried in 
Trinity Church-yard. Even now you can see the 
stone that marks his grave, close by the side- 
entrance of the present church. 

During much of the time that Fletcher governed, 
the French in Canada were continually threatening 
to fight with the English in New York. There 
were fierce and bloody conflicts on the border, but 
no enemy reached the city. There was also another 
danger that grew stronger day by day. It came 
about as the result of privateering. 

A privateer was a vessel which under commission 
from one country, carried on war with the ships of 
other countries. The captains were called priva- 
teers, as were the ships. These privateers were 
so successful that they grew bold, and instead of 
attacking only the ships of enemies of their coun- 

[79] 



The Story of Manhattan 



try, they threw away their commissions and at- 
tacked ships of all countries for their private gain. 
Then they were called pirates. They became rob- 
bers and murderers, for they murdered as well as 
robbed. These pirates bore down upon the ships of 
all nations, carried off their cargoes, then sunk the 
vessels without knowing or caring how many were 
on board, that none might escape to tell the tale. 

Nowhere were the pirates more daring than near 
the American coast. The vessels of New York 
merchants were burned within sight of shore, and 
the pirates were even bold enough to enter the 
harbor and seize the ships as they lay at anchor. 

The officials of the province made no apparent 
effort to suppress these pirates. It was thought 
then, and has since been believed, that they assisted 
them, and were well paid for such help. Governor 
Fletcher himself was suspected of sharing in the 
pirate booty. Merchants who feared to carry on 
regular trade, as their ships were almost sure to be 
seized, came, after a time, to lend their aid also to 
the pirates, by buying their cargoes. 

[80] 



Governor Fletcher and the Privateers 



Finally, very few ships dared to cross the ocean. 
Then the English Government became alarmed. 



..-mil >^^V^^A% 



mr^fr^^^ 





The Reading of Fletcher's Commission. 
A new Governor was searched for — a man strong 
enough to resist the bribery of pirate crews, and 
able to drive them off the seas. And just such a 
man was found. 

[8i] 



CHAPTER XII 



Containing the True 
Life o/" Captain Kidd 



IN England there lived a man who had been 
a great friend of King William ; who had 
been his friend even before he had become 
King. This man was Lord Bellomont. It was he 
who was chosen Governor in the year 1696. But 
it was two years after this that he reached New 
York. During these two years he worked hard in 
the interests of the province. He knew all about 
the pirates, and knew that it would take a strong 
force to subdue them. He called upon the Eng- 
lish Government to fit out men for this purpose. 
But the Government had neither men, nor ships, 
nor guns to spare. 

So Lord Bellomont decided to raise a private 
armed force. He got together a company, of which 
the King was a member, and they fitted out a strong 
and fast-sailing vessel called the Adventure Gal- 

[82] 



The True Life of Captain Kidd 



ley. Lord Bellomont looked about for a good 
captain. At last he thought he had found just the 
man in Captain William Kidd. Captain Kidd just 
at this time happened to be in London, where he 
was well known, and well liked. His home was in 
New York, where his wife and daughter lived in 
a fine house in Crown Street, and where he was a 
respected citizen. But best of all for the Company, 
Captain Kidd had been in command of a privateer, 
and knew a good deal about pirates and their ways. 

And so it came about that Captain Kidd sailed 
away, commander of the Adventure Galley, with 
its crew of sixty sailors, and its thirty guns, to de- 
stroy the pirates. 

Then followed a space of time during which 
news of the bold Captain was eagerly awaited. It 
came soon enough — news that was startling. Cap- 
tain Kidd had been tempted by the adventurous 
life and great gains, and had himself turned pirate ! 
During the next two years he was heard of as the 
most daring and fierce of pirates, plundering and 
sinking ships, until his name became a terror on the 

[83] 



The Story of Manhattan 



sea. He collected great treasure, and then decided 
to give up piracy. He returned to New York, and 
touched first at Gardiner's Island, a bit of land at 
the eastern end of Long Island. There he buried a 
portion of his treasure. The remainder he divided 
with his crew. Then he went to Boston, took a 
new name, and intended to live in quiet and lux- 
ury during the remainder of his life. But, unfort- 
unately, one day Lord Bellomont was in Boston, 
met him, and caused his arrest. In a few months 
he was sent to England in chains. There he was 
executed. 

When it was known that Captain Kidd had made 
a stop at Gardiner's Island, search was made there 
and the hidden treasure was dug up. There were 
rumors from time to time that Kidd and his pirate 
crew had stopped at points on the East River shore 
of the Island of Manhattan, and many men hunted 
that shore and sought in many places for hidden 
treasure, but none was ever found there. 

During the time that Captain Kidd was roaming 
the sea, Lord Bellomont was governing New York. 

[84] 



The Story of Manhattan 



The new Governor was at first much admired. He 
was a fine man, with faultless manners, and a com- 
mander in every inch of his tall figure. He had 
hands as soft as a woman's, a kindly eye, and a 
gentle voice. But he could be stern, and was stern 
and unyielding, too, when occasion required. He 
dressed in better taste than anyone who had ever 
lived in the province, and his horses and carriage 
were finer than had ever before been seen in the 
city. 

Friends of the dead Jacob Leisler had told Lord 
Bellomont tales of what a good man Leisler had 
been, and how he had been unjustly executed. So 
Lord Bellomont, to the end of his life, favored the 
friends of Leisler. 

He was firmly convinced that many of the city 
merchants had become rich through dealings with 
the pirates. This belief made many enemies for 
him. Then, too, there were laws which would not 
permit merchants to trade with any country except 
England ; hard laws, that were constantly broken, 
for the merchants could not see why they should 
■' [86] 



The True Life of Captain Kidd 



not trade with anyone they saw fit. Bellomont was 
so strict in enforcing these laws and in collecting 
duties that he made more enemies, who sought his 
recall. 

Nevertheless many improvements were carried 
out while Bellomont was Governor. A first effort 
was made to light the streets, which had, up to this 
time, only had the light of the moon at night. 
This was done by a lantern with a candle in it hung 
on a pole from the window of every seventh house. 
A night-watch was also established, consisting of 
four men. 

After Bellomont had been Governor for a few 
years, what remained of the city wall was removed, 
and Wall Street had its beginning on the line of the 
old wall. The same year the old Stadt Huys was 
found to be in a state of decay. Then a new city hall 
was erected on the new Wall Street, close by where 
Nassau Street now touches it. There were dun- 
geons in the new building for criminals, cells in the 
attic for debtors, and a court-room on the main floor. 

The first library, under the name of the Corpora- 
[«7] 



The Story of Manhattan 





■rf^^H 


^^v^^^^l*2>^«^^^^^^Bf9^^^^^> 




^^^^B 


^^^^^^^^^^^^. 


k 1 


"^^^ 


^^^K 


iJ 


L^ffi 


w^m 


IfP 


■1^1 


H 


HUhI 


l^A 


Hlg^ 


^^JMBI 


^^^H 


■HHB^n 


i^^w^^PB 



ISlew City Hall iti Wall Street. 



tion Library, was opened in the City Hall. This 
is the library that afterward became the Society 
Library. It is still in existence, and now has its 
home in University Place. 

All in all. Lord Bellomont was a good Governor, 
who did much for the people, and much to make 
the city an agreeable place to live in ; and there was 
deep regret when he died suddenly in the year 
1701. He was buried in the chapel in the fort, 

[88] 



The True Life of Captain Kidd 



and as an especial honor to his memory his coat- 
of-arms was fixed on the wall of the new City Hall 
in Wall Street. This was a great honor, even 
though the fickle people, a few years later, when 
a new Governor came, did tear down the arms and 
burn them in the street. 

John Nanfan, the Lieutenant-Governor, took 
command of the province until news reached the 
city that Lord Cornbury had been appointed Gov- 
ernor. Nicholas Bayard, who had made such a 
bitter fight against Leisler, and who had been im- 
prisoned so long, hated Governor Nanfan, because 
Nanfan was a friend of the people who called them- 
selves the Leislerian party. So Bayard sent an ad- 
dress to Lord Cornbury saying that Nanfan was an 
enemy. But Nanfan arrested Bayard, and had him 
tried under the self-same act under which Leisler had 
been tried. This act pronounced traitors anyone 
who should make an effort to disturb the peace of 
the province. Bayard was sentenced to death, but 
a reprieve was granted pending the pleasure of the 
King. Before word could be got to England, 

[89] 



The Story of Manhattan 



Lord Cornbury arrived. Bayard was promoted 
to a place of honor, and there was a scattering 
of the Leislerians, who were now looked upon 
as enemies of the Government. 




Fort George in 1740. 



[90] 



CHAPTER XIII 



Lord Corn bury makes 
Himself very Unpopular 



IT was in the year that Princess Anne became 
Queen of England (1702) that Edward Hyde, 
Lord Cornbury, eldest son of the Earl of 
Clarendon, was sent to govern New York. He 
was a cousin of the Queen, and left England to 
escape the demands of those to whom he owed 
money. 

When Lord Cornbury arrived in New York, the 
Mayor, with much ceremony, presented him with a 
box of gold, containing the freedom of the city, 
which gave to him every privilege. It was a great 
deal of trouble and expense to go to, for the Gov- 
ernor would have taken all the privileges, even if 
the Mayor had not gone through the form of giving 
them. 

Governor Cornbury very soon let his new sub- 
jects see that he was eager to acquire wealth, and 

[91] 



The Story of Manhattan 



that he intended to get it without the slightest 
regard for their interests or desires. 

The Queen had told him that he should do all in 
his power to make the Church of England the es- 
tablished church of the land ; that he should build 
new churches, punish drunkenness, swearing, and all 
such vices, and that he should keep the colony sup- 
plied with negro slaves. 

There was much sickness in the town — so much 
that it became epidemic. So the Governor and his 
council went to the little village of Jamaica, on 
Long Island, and carried on the business of the city 
in a Presbyterian church building. When the epi- 
demic had passed, he gave the church to the Epis- 
copalians, because he remembered that Queen Anne 
had told him to make the Church of England the 
established church. There were riotous times in 
Jamaica after that, but the Episcopal clergyman 
occupied the house, and the Episcopalians wor- 
shipped in the church regardless of all protests. 

Not many improvements were made during Lord 
Cornbury's administration. He cared little for the 

[92] 



Lord Cornbury makes Himself Unpopular 



good of the city or for anything else except his own 
pleasures. The constant fear of war gave the peo- 
ple little time to think of improvements. They 
did, however, pave Broadway from Trinity Church 
to the Bowling Green. But do not imagine that 
this pavement was anything like those of to-day. 
It was of cobble-stones, and the gutters ran through 
the middle of the street. 

The Governor came to be detested more and 
more by the people, for as the years went by he 
spent their money recklessly. He had a habit of 
walking about the fort in the dress of a woman, 
and another habit of giving dinners to his friends 
that lasted well on toward morning, when the guests 
sang and shouted so boisterously that the quiet citi- 
zens of the little town could not sleep. 

So when the people grew very, very tired of it, 
they sent word to Queen Anne that her kinsman 
was a very bad Governor. And she, after much 
hesitation, when he had been Governor six years, re- 
moved him from office. She no sooner did this, than 
those to whom he owed money, and there were a 

[93] 



The Story of Manhattan 



great many of them, had him put in the debtors' 
prison, in the upper story of the City Hall in Wall 
Street. And in jail he remained for several months, 
until his father, the Earl of Clarendon, died, and 
money was sent for the release of the debtor pris- 
oner, who was now a peer of Great Britain. 




View 171 Broad Street about IJ40. 



[94] 



CHAPTER XIV 



Lord Lovelace and 
Robert Hunter 



THE new Governor arrived in the last 
months of the year 1708. He was John, 
Lord Lovelace. As there had been so 
much trouble caused by the governors appropriat- 
ing money belonging to the citizens, he decided to 
take a very different course. He had the public 
accounts looked into, and said, " I wish it known 
to all the world that the public debt has not been 
contracted in my time." And having said this 
(which made a fine impression) the Governor asked 
the Assembly to set aside enough money for him 
to run the affairs of the province for a number of 
years. This was to be called a permanent revenue. 
But the Assembly would do no such thing. In 
the midst of the discussion, Governor Lovelace 
died, five months after his arrival. 

It was quite a year after the death of Lovelace 

[95] 



The Story of Manhattan 



before his successor came. This was Robert Hun- 
ter, a most exceptional man. His parents were 
poor, and when a boy he had run away from home 
and had joined the British army. By working very 
hard at his books when the army was not fighting, 
by studying in the soldiers' quarters and on the 
battle-field, by making friends with officers of high 
rank. Hunter had grown to manhood brave, well 
educated, and of graceful manner. On coming to 
New York he at once made friends with many in- 
fluential persons. His most important friendship 
was with Lewis Morris, whom he afterward ap- 
pointed chief-justice. This Morris was a son of 
Richard Morris, an officer in Cromwell's army, who 
had come to the province, purchased a manor ten 
miles square near Harlem, and called it Morrisania 
— by which name it is still known. 

The year after Hunter arrived. New York joined 
with New England in a plan to conquer Canada 
(which belonged to the French) and join it to the 
English colonies. Money was raised, troops were 
gotten together, and ships and soldiers were sent 

[96] 



Lord Lovelace and Robert Hunter 



from England. But when the attack was to be 
made, the English ships struck on the rocks in a 
fog off the coast of Canada, and eight of them sank 
with more than 800 men. This great loss put an 
end to the intended invasion. The soldiers re- 
turned home, where there was great sorrow at the 
dismal failure of a project that had cost so much 
money and so many lives. 

Governor Hunter had only been in the province 
a short time when he began to urge the Assembly 
to grant him that permanent revenue that Lovelace 
had asked for. Queen Anne had said that he was 
to have it. But the Assembly would only grant 
him money from year to year. 

About this time the first public market for the 
sale of negro slaves was established at the foot of 
Wall Street. More and more slaves were brought 
into the city, and the laws were made more and 
more strict to keep them in the most abject bondage. 
It had come to be the law that no more than four 
slaves could meet together at one time. They were 
not permitted to pass the city gates, nor to carry 

[97] 



The Story of Manhattan 



weapons of any sort. Should one appear on the 
street after nightfall without a lighted lantern, he 
was put in jail and his master was fined. Some- 
times a slave murdered his owner. Then he was 
burned at the stake, after scarcely the pretence of a 




The Slave- Market. From an Old Print, 



trial ; or was suspended from the branches of a tall 
tree and left there to die. 

But although the slaves were restrained and 
beaten and killed, their numbers increased so fast 
that the citizens were always in fear that they might 
one day rise up and kill all their masters. A riot 
did occur the year after the slave-market was set 

[98] 



Lord Lovelace and Robert Hunter 



up. Several white men were killed and a house 
was burned. Many negroes were then arrested 
and nineteen of them were executed under a 
charge of having engaged in a plot against the 
whites. 

Affairs moved along quietly for a time after the 
riot. The next most interesting happening was 
the putting up of the first public clock, on the City 
Hall in Wall Street. It was the gift of Stephen 
De Lancey. 

De Lancey was a Huguenot nobleman, who had 
fled from France when the Huguenots were perse- 
cuted for their faith, and had found a home in the 
new world. He lived in a mansion at the corner of 
what are now Pearl and Broad Streets. The house 
is there yet, still called Fraunces's Tavern from the 
owner who turned it into a tavern after De Lancey 
removed from it. 

Governor Hunter was becoming very popular 

with the people, when unfortunately his health 

failed. So he surrendered the government into the 

hands of Peter Schuyler, who was the oldest mem- 

L.ofC. [99] 



The Story of Manhattan 



ber in the City Council, and went to Europe, hav- 
ing served for nine years. For thirteen months 
Schuyler took charge, until William Burnet, the 
new Governor, replaced him. 




Fraunces* s Tavern. 



[lOO] 



CHAPTER XV 



Governor Burnet 
and the French Traders 



GOVERNOR WILLIAM BURNET was 
the son of a celebrated bishop of Eng- 
land. 

His early days were passed at the Court of Will- 
iam III., where he met people of refinement and 
culture. Of an observing nature, and studying a 
great deal, he came to be a man of deep learning, a 
good talker, with manners that attracted attention 
wherever he went — so fine were they. 

The city was gayly decorated in honor of his 
coming. Women looked from their windows and 
waved their handkerchiefs. Men crowded the 
streets and loudly shouted their welcome. 

Soon after, he married the daughter of a leading 
merchant, and so identified himself at once with the 
city's interests. He became the fast friend of Chief- 
Justice Lewis Morris. Another friendship was that 

[lOl] 



The Story of Manhattan 



he formed with Dr. Cadwallader Colden. We shall 
hear more of this man later. Besides being a phy- 
sician of note, he had a world-wide reputation as a 
writer on many scientific subjects. 

Along about this time the French were trying 
hard to get all the trade with the Indians, not only 
in the province of New York, but in all the lands 
as far west as the Mississippi country that was then 
wild and unexplored. By this they could make a 
great deal of money, but, better still, would make 
friends of the powerful Indian tribes. Then the 
French hoped that the Indians would join with 
them against the English and that they could con- 
quer all the English lands in America. 

The New York merchants were quite content to 
let the French do the trading with the Indians, for 
the French traders bought all their goods in New 
York, and the merchants in selling to them did not 
run the great risk of being murdered, as they would 
in trading with the Indians in the forests. But al- 
though the merchants were satisfied, Governor Bur- 
net was not. He realized the danger to the English 

[I02] 



Governor Burnet an^^ tie French Traders 



provinces should the Indians become enemies. So 
he decided to establish a line of English trading 
stations that would enable the colonists to trade di- 
rectly with the Indians in safety. He also made it 
unlawful to sell goods in New York to the French 
traders. 

The merchants bitterly disapproved of these acts 
of Governor Burnet. They believed that he had 
dealt a death-blow to their French trade, and they 
became his bitter enemies. He tried hard to estab- 
lish the line of trading stations, but the English 
Government refused to help him with money, and 
the project had to be abandoned, and the law against 
the French trade, which had caused the trouble, was 
repealed. The trade was once more carried on. 

By this time George II. had become King of 
England, which was in the year 1728. Influence 
was brought to bear, and Governor Burnet was 
removed, and left the province a poorer man than 
he had entered it. 

Toward the end of this same year Colonel John 
Montgomery was made Governor. 



The Story of Manhattan 



He had been groom of the bedchamber of 
George II. when the latter was Prince of Wales. 
He was a weak and lazy man, although he had 
been bred a soldier. You may believe that he 
never did much in the soldiering line, for a sol- 
dier's life is a hard one, and not likely to encour- 
age a man to be lazy. Montgomery was given 
a cordial welcome, however. 

The year after he came, the first Jewish cemetery 
was established, the remains of which may still be 
seen in the neighborhood of Chatham Square in 
New Bowery Street. It has not been used as a 
graveyard in many a year, and much of the ground 
is now occupied by buildings. But there is still a por- 
tion, behind a stone wall, and crumbling tombstones 
have stood there ever so many years longer than the 
dingy tenements which hem them in on three sides. 

In the days of Montgomery, New York was 
still a small village, for most of the houses were be- 
low the present Fulton Street, and they were not at 
all thickly built, so there was room enough for pleas- 
ant gardens around them. 

[104] 



Governor Burnet and the French Traders 



At this time the vacant space in front of the fort, 
which had been used as a parade-ground and a 
market-place, was leased to three citizens whose 
houses were nearby to be used as a Bowling Green. 
Its name came from this and it still keeps it. 

A fire department was organized and two engines 
were imported and room made for them in the City 
Hall. Before this the department had consisted of 
a few leather buckets and a few fire-hooks. 

In 1 73 1 Governor Montgomery died, and for 
thirteen months after. Rip Van Dam, oldest mem- 
ber of the council, and a wealthy merchant, looked 
after the province until the coming of WiUiam 
Cosby. 



[105] 



CHAPTER XVI 



The Trial o/'Zenger, 
the Printer 



COSBY arrived; a testy, disagreeable man 
who loved money above everything else. 
The colonists received him with favor, 
because they did not know these things about him. 
The Assembly granted him a revenue for six years, 
and gave him a present of £^ ^o besides. The 
Governor thought this a very small sum and said 
so. He presented an order from the King which 
said that he was to have half the salary that Rip 
Van Dam had received for acting as Governor. 

But Van Dam would not part with his money, 
and the people sided with him, for they had long 
been weary of governors who looked upon the 
colony simply as a means to repair their fortunes. 
Cosby was determined to get the money, so he 
sued Van Dam. This suit was conducted in a 
court where there were three judges, and two of 

[io6J 



The Trial of Zenger, the Printer 



them were friends of Cosby. One of them was 
James De Lancey, a son of that Stephen De 
Lancey who had given the clock to the city. The 




Dinner at Rip Van Dani' s. 

Chief-Justice was still Lewis Morris, who had been 
appointed by Governor Hunter. So with two 
judges, friends of the Governor, he won his suit, 

[107] 



The Story of Manhattan 



and Van Dam was ordered to pay him half his 
salary. 

More than this, Chief-Justice Morris, who had 
disagreed with the other two judges, was removed 
from office, and James De Lancey became Chief- 
Justice. 

The mass of the people disapproved of these 
doings, and there were murmurs of discontent. 
But the Governor had his money, and had made 
his friend Chief-Justice, and was running matters 
pretty much his own way, so he was satisfied. 

There was still only one paper, the New York 
Gazette^ published by William Bradford. As 
Bradford was the Government printer, it was quite 
natural that he should side with Cosby. But just 
at this time another paper came into existence, a 
rival to the Gazette, which took up the people's 
cause. This was the New York Weekly Journal, 
published by Peter Zenger, who had been one of 
Bradford's workmen. Each week it was filled with 
articles assailing Cosby, and all who were in sympa- 
thy with him. Very soon Zenger was arrested, 

[io8] 



The Trial of Zenger, the Printer 



charged with pubhshing Hbels against the city offi- 
cials and the King. He was locked up in one of 
the cells in the City Hall. 

The friends of Zenger secretly secured the ser- 
vices of Andrew Hamilton, a distinguished lawyer 
of Philadelphia, who pleaded his cause to good 
effect, and showed that Zenger had only spoken as 
any man had a right to speak, and had pointed out 
wrongs where wrongs existed. Justice De Lancey, 
remembering that his friend the Governor had made 
him Chief-Justice, told the jury that they must find 
Zenger guilty. But the jury pronounced him not 
guilty. Thus the freedom of the press was estab- 
lished, and the jury, by their verdict, had opposed 
the Governor, his council, the Assembly, and the 
judge before whom the accused had been tried. 

About this time Lord Augustus Fitzroy, young- 
est son of the Duke of Grafton, came from Eng- 
land to visit Governor Cosby. The Governor 
thanked him for having honored New York with 
his presence, and told him that the city was open 
and invited him to go where he pleased. Lord 

[109] 



The Story of Manhattan 



Augustus did not go far. He fell in love with the 
Governor's daughter. He did more than fall in 
love, for one day he induced a minister to climb 
over the fort wall and marry him to her, without 
leave or license. The friends of the young noble- 
man were shocked, for the Governor's daughter was 
considered beneath him in rank. Governor Cosby 
was accused of having brought about this unequal 
match, although Lord Augustus said that it was the 
lady's winning ways and pretty face. 

Cosby, after the Zenger trial, did what he could 
to check the liberty of the citizens, but was soon 
stricken with a fatal illness. On his death-bed he 
called together the members of his council, and sus- 
pended his old enemy. Rip Van Dam, who would 
have been his successor until another Governor 
was appointed. And having done this he died, 
on March lo, 1736, leaving a quarrelsome state of 
affairs behind him. 



[tio] 



CHAPTER XVII 



Concerning the Negro 
Plot 



THE citizens were so far from being pleased 
when they learned that Rip Van Dam 
was not to act in the Governor's place, 
that, for a time, it looked very much as though 
there would be a riot. There was a member of the 
Assembly named George Clarke, and when his fel- 
low-members chose him for the place that Rip Van 
Dam should have had, there was more grumbling. 
But as no Governor came from England for seven 
years, Clarke looked after the province all that 
time. He was an easy-going man, who tried by 
every possible means to make friends. There was 
one happening in particular by which he is remem- 
bered. It was called the Negro Plot. 

Slaves had been brought to the city, until now 
there were a,ooo of them. The 8,000 citizens 
were in constant dread lest the negroes should some 

[I,,] 



The Story of Manhattan 



day rise up in revolt. Early in the spring of the 
year 1741 several fires occurred in different parts 
of the city, and the citizens felt quite sure that the 
slaves had started them. As the hours passed, the 
idea of a plot grew until it seemed a fact. Then a 
reward was offered to anyone who would tell of a 
conspiracy or of anyone concerned in one. 

Just at this time a woman was arrested for a 
small theft, and when she heard of the reward, she 
all at once remembered that there had been meet- 
ings of negroes at a small tavern where she had 
worked. She told of a plan to kill every white 
person ; to set all the negroes free, and to make 
one of them King of the city. The woman who 
told this story was Mary Burton. The tavern- 
keeper, his wife, and several other negroes were 
hanged in short order. Still the fires kept on. 
There were dozens within ten days, and among 
others the Governor's house in the fort was burned 
to the ground. 

Mary Burton now began a remarkable series of 
confessions which grew wilder with each passing 

[I I a] 



Concerning the Negro Plot 



day. Negro slaves accused by her were arrested 
in numbers. Liberty was promised all who would 
speak the truth, and speaking the truth was under- 




The Negroes Sentenced. 

[■■3] 



The Story of Manhattan 



stood to mean giving information of a conspiracy. 
Very soon several negroes were burned at the stake 
in a little valley beyond the Collect Pond. This 
awful death frightened many, who hastened to cry 
out that they knew all about the plot. There were 
some who saved their lives by confessing things 
that were not true ; many more did not. 

During the whole long, hot summer the hanging 
and burning of negro slaves went on. Late in the 
year, when Mary Burton had seen every person she 
had accused arrested, she grew more bold. She 
sought some new story to tell, and found one in 
remembering for the first time that white people 
had been connected with the plot. Twenty-four 
white citizens had been arrested, when Mary Bur- 
ton began to attack prominent townsmen ; even 
those who had been foremost in the prosecution of 
the negroes. It was only then realized that the 
woman's words could not be relied upon. She 
was paid the hundred pounds that had been prom- 
ised her, and she disappeared, leaving no trace. 

Gradually the fury of feeling against the slaves 

[>H] 



Concerning the Negro Plot 



died away. Whether there had ever been any real 
plot will always remain unanswered. 

Certain it is, however, that the witnesses on whose 
words arrests were made were all of uncertain and 
unreliable character ; that the evidence was contra- 
dictory, and that most of it was extorted under pain 
of death. 

The excitement passed away after a time, and 
George Clarke went on talking finely and managing 
his own affairs so well that he was growing very rich 
indeed when his official life came to a sudden end. 



['15] 



CHAPTER XVIII 



The Tragic Death of 
Sir Danvers Osborne 



IN this year, 1743, Admiral George Clinton was 
sent by King George II. of England to take 
the place of George Clarke as Governor. 
Then Clarke packed up his riches and went to 
England and enjoyed the rest of his life far from 
the little colony that he had governed so much to 
his own profit. 

Admiral Clinton was the son of an English earl. 

When he had been Governor not yet a year, there 
came a man whose influence was soon felt. He was 
Commodore Peter Warren, of the British Navy, 
who in later years became an admiral. Before he had 
been in New York long, he married Susannah De 
Lancey, a sister of the Chief-Justice. They went 
to live in a new house in the country, in the district 
which was then and is now known as Greenwich. 

England was again at war with France at this 

[116] 



Tragic Death of Sir Danvers Osborne 



time. There were tribes of Indians who sided with 
the French, and there were other tribes who sided 
with the EngHsh, and the result was a series of 
bloody border wars. Two years after the coming 
of Governor CHnton, New York, with the other 
English colonies, gathered troops to attack the 
French, and a great force was sent against a city 
called Louisburg. This city was on Cape Breton 
Island, which is close by the coast of Nova Scotia 
and was a fortress of such great strength, that it was 
called the Gibraltar of America. Commodore War- 
ren led the English fleet, and the combined forces 
by sea and land captured the fortress. 

You will remember James De Lancey, who was 
still Chief-Justice. He was very rich, and as he 
showed at all times that he considered the interests 
of the citizens above all things, they naturally 
thought a great deal of him. For a time he acted 
as adviser to Governor Clinton, but the two had a 
falling out. 

For the ten years that Clinton remained Governor 
he had great trouble with the people, who sided with 

[117] 



The Story of Manhattan 



De Lancey. At the end of that time Governor 
Clinton, finding that his power grew less and less, 
and that De Lancey became more and more popu- 
lar, resigned his office. A few months went by, and 
then came Sir Danvers Osborne to be Governor. 
On the third day after reaching the city he walked 
out of the fort at the head of the other officials, with 
Clinton by his side, to go to the City Hall, where 
he was to take the oath of office. The people, all 
gathered in the streets, shouted when they saw the 
new Governor. But at the sight of Clinton, whom 
they hated, they hissed and shook their fists and 
yelled, until Clinton became alarmed and hurried 
back to the fort, leaving the new Governor to go 
on without him. And Sir Danvers Osborne was 
much surprised and a little frightened. 

" I expect," said he to Clinton that same day, " I 
expect the same treatment before I leave the prov- 
ince.'* 

For all the shaking fists and for all the angry 
shouts, the new Governor was well entertained that 
day. The church-bells rang, cannon boomed, and 

[,,8] 



Tragic Death of Sir Danvers Osborne 



at night the town was illuminated. But the citizens 
did not do this so much for the new Governor as 
they did for De Lancey, who had now been made 
Lieutenant-Governor. 

Two days after Sir Danvers took the oath of 
office he called his council before him and told 
them that the King had said he was to have the per- 
manent revenue about which there had been so 
much trouble with the other governors. And the 
council members told him, as they had told others, 
that this command would never be obeyed. On 
hearing this Sir Danvers became sad and gloomy. 
He covered his face with his hands. 

" Then what am I come here for ? " he cried. 

The very next morning there was an uproar in the 
city. The Governor had been found dead, hang- 
ing from the garden-wall of his house. Then the 
people learned that his mind had been unsettled for 
a long time, and that he had accepted the governor- 
ship hoping to be cured by a change of scene. But 
the knowledge that his rule would be one of con- 
stant struggling to gain his ends had doubtless 



The Story of Manhattan 



proven too much for his wrecked brain. So he 
killed himself, and the government of New York 
was left in the hands of James De Lancey, and you 
will see how he still further won the hearts of those 
around him. 



[120] 



CHAPTER XIX 



The Beginning of 
Discontent 



TWO years James De Lancey acted as Gov- 
ernor, and the citizens were really sorry 
when Admiral Sir Charles Hardy was 
sent to take his place. 

Sir Charles was not slow to see and to admit 
that while he was a good sailor, he did not make a 
good Governor, so after a year he resigned, and the 
province was once more left to the care of De 
Lancey. 

At this time there was much being said about the 
need for schools, and for many years plans had 
been under way for building a college in the city. 

Money had been raised by means of lotteries — 
which were popular and lawful then — and finally 
the college was established. It was called King's 
College. It is still in existence, but is now Colum- 
bia University. A tablet at West Broadway and 

[121] 



The Story of Manhattan 



Murray Street tells that the college once stood 
close by. 

It was near this time that William Walton, a 
very rich merchant, built the finest house that the 
city had yet known. This was in Queen Street, 
not a great way from the Stadt Huys, and the fur- 
niture and fittings were in keeping with the ele- 
gance of the exterior. It was so fine that the fame 
of it spread to England, where it was spoken of 
as a proof that the colonists were very, very rich 
indeed. This house stood for 129 years. When 
it was torn down it had become a tenement that 
showed scarcely a trace of its early grandeur. 
Queen Street is now Pearl Street and the building 
numbered "^i^i^i is on the site of the famous old 
house. 

There was another war with the French now, and 
four expeditions were sent out against them. On 
one of these a young oflicer with the troops from 
Virginia distinguished himself He was cool and 
daring in the midst of battle. The soldiers, who 
were themselves fearless fighters, strove to be as 

[122J 



The Beginning of Discontent 



brave as he. This officer was only twenty-three 
years old, and his name was George Washington. 
He had a glorious career before him. 

There came from England in the year following 
this a burly, blustering man, who had been ap- 
pointed commander-in-chief of the British forces in 
America. This Lord Loudoun very soon proved 
to everybody's satisfaction except his own that he 
was not fit to be a commander. The people of 
New York detested him heartily, and were glad 
when after three years he was recalled because he 
was not successful in the war against the French. 
The new commander-in-chief did better. He was 
General Jeffrey Amherst, and under him the English 
were gradually successful. Town after town held 
by the French fell, until the capture of Montreal, 
in 1760, secured to the English the conquest of 
Canada, and so ended a conflict which had for many 
years drained the energies of the colonists. 

Soon after this Lieutenant-Governor James De 
Lanccy was found dead in his library-chair at his 
country home (now a closely built-up part of the 

[1^3] 



The Story of Manhattan 



city at Delancey Street, near the Bowery). In a 
few days his body was taken from there, followed 
by a great concourse of people, and buried under 




Trinity Churchy lydo. 

the centre aisle of Trinity Church. Up to the 
last day of his life De Lancey remained much 
beloved. 

[,24] 



The Beginning of Discontent 



The death of De Lancey left the care of the 
colony to Cadwallader Colden, whom you will re- 
member as the friend of Governor Hunter. He 
had been so long concerned in public affairs that he 
knew how to please. Before the year was ended 
England's King, George II., died. When the news 
reached New York, the city was draped with 
mourning. But in another week all signs of sad- 
ness had disappeared in honor of the new King, 
George III. 

Then General Robert Monckton, who had been 
in command of the English forces on Staten Island, 
was made Governor. He was a young man, some- 
what careless, but, as was the case with all the new 
governors, he was welcomed with glad shouts of 
approval. 

England at this time needed men in her navy, 
and the captains of war-ships were in the habit of 
boarding any vessel that sailed from the colonies in 
America and taking sailors by force to serve on the 
English ships. This increased a bitter feeling that 
the colonists were beginning to have against Eng- 

[125] 



The Story of Manhattan 



land. The city had now 14,000 inhabitants and 
was in quite a flourishing condition. 

After two years Monckton tired of the cares of 
government, and sailed away to England, with 
never a thought of the wild scenes that were to take 
place in the land he left behind. 



[126] 



CHAPTER XX 



The Story of the Stamp 
Act 



THE colonists were becoming more and 
more dissatisfied, not only in New York, 
but in all of the thirteen English colonies 
in America. For they strongly objected to the way 
in which money was being taken from them, in the 
form of taxes. The English had spent much 
money in the wars which led up to the conquest 
of Canada, and thought that it should be returned 
to them. So they taxed the colonists in every 
possible way. Protest was made against these taxes, 
but in vain. Matters became worse and worse. 
After two years, when it had come to be the year 
1765, the British Parliament passed what was called 
the Stamp Act. This compelled the people to buy 
stamps and put them on every sort of legal paper. 
No one could be married, no newspaper could be 
printed, nothing could be bought, nothing could be 

[.07] 



The Story of Manhattan 



sold, no business of any sort could be carried on 
without these stamps. No one could evade the 
use of them, and in this way all would have to 
contribute directly to the King. 

More than any other form of tax, more than any- 
thing the British Government had done, the people 
opposed this Stamp Act. The colonists had no 
one to represent them in the British Parliament, 
no one to present their side, no one to plead for 
them and tell what a drain this tax was, so they 
declared that they would not use a single stamp, 
unless they were allowed to have someone to repre- 
sent them ; and they set up the cry, " No Taxation 
Without Representation.*' 

Very soon a company of men called the Sons of 
Liberty began to be heard of throughout all the 
thirteen colonies. They were foremost in opposing 
the Stamp Act. In many towns they held meet- 
ings, and it was not long before the people were 
aroused from one end of the country to the other. 

Not many months had passed before men were 
sent from each of the colonies and met in the City 



The Story of the Stamp Act 



Hall at New York. This meeting was called a 
Colonial Congress. For three weeks these men 
conferred, and during that time decided that in good 
truth the Stamp Act was unjust, and that every- 
thing in their power should be done to prevent it. 




Coffee- House opposite Bozvling Green, Head-Ouarters of the 
Sons of Liberty. 

In this same year the house which Stephen De 
Lancey had built close by Trinity Church, and which 
James De Lancey had lived in until his death, had 
become a hotel. It was called Burns's Coffee- 

[1.29J 



The Story of Manhattan 



House. It was a solid structure, with high beams, 
great fireplaces, and wide halls. If you go now to 
look for the spot where it stood, you will find a 
crowded business section ; but in those days there 
were open spaces all about, and a handsome lawn 
swept away to the river. One October night the 
merchants of the city gathered in this coffee-house, 
and here, late at night, they signed a paper which 
bound them one and all to buy no goods from 
England so long as the English King should com- 
pel them to use the stamps. By this agreement 
people could, of course, only wear clothing that was 
made in the colonies, and even the wealthy refused 
to buy silk and broadcloth that were sent from 
England. Tea and coffee, being imports, were not 
drunk, and in their place were used preparations 
made from fragrant wild herbs of the American 
soil. 

The merchants who had assembled in the coffee- 
house were called the Non-Importation Association, 
branches of which spread throughout all the colonies. 
The paper they signed was the non-importation 

I I JO] 



The Story of the Stamp Act 



agreement. Next day, which was the first on 
which the stamps were to be distributed, the city 
seemed to sleep. The shops were closed and the 
citizens remained indoors. The flags were hung at 
half-mast and the bells tolled dismally. 

But at night the silence changed to noise. The 
citizens gathered in numbers. They broke into the 
stable of Lieutenant-Governor Cadwallader Colden 
and dragged out his coach of state. In it they put 
a figure made of sticks and rags to represent the 
owner. They marched the streets, shouting as 
they went, and finally surrounded the fort. The 
soldiers were drawn up on the ramparts with cannon 
and gun directed toward the Bowling Green. But 
no shots were fired. The rioters being denied ad- 
mission to the fort, into which they were anxious to 
get because the stamps were stored there, tore down 
the wooden railing around the Bowling Green, and, 
kindling a huge fire, burned the coach and the figure 
in it. 

As the flames blazed high, the fury of the mob 
increased. They rushed away toward Vauxhall on 

[131] 



The Story of Manhattan 



the outskirts of the town (where Greenwich and 
Warren Streets now cross). Vauxhall at this time 
was occupied by a major of the British army named 
James. He had said that the stamps ought to be 
crammed down the throats of the people with the 
point of a sword. In revenge for this his house 
was broken into, his handsome furniture, his pict- 
ures and treasures of every sort dragged out, and 
kindled into a bonfire around which the mob 
danced and howled. 

The people were quite determined to take the law 
into their own hands and destroy every trace of the 
hated stamps. You shall know presently what pre- 
vented them. 



VnA 



CHAPTER XXI 



The Beginning of 
Revolution 



ON the morning after the night of rioting — 
a dark and dreary day that was quite in 
keeping with the gloomy feelings of the 
people — Cadwallader Colden, the Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor, decided that he would do away with the 
stamps that had caused so much trouble. So he 
had them delivered to the Mayor, who was in ac- 
cord with the citizens, and the Mayor put them 
in the City Hall amid many cheers. A few days 
after this Sir Henry Moore (who had been ap- 
pointed Governor of the province) arrived from 
England, and immediately won the hearts of the 
citizens by saying that he would have nothing to 
do with the stamps. During the next few months 
excitement in New York and in the other colonies 
increased, and efforts to keep the stamps in use 
caused riots everywhere. 



The Story of Manhattan 



When the King saw that he could not enforce 
the Stamp Act, and that serious trouble was likely 
to occur from every attempt to do so, he repealed 
the act, the year after it had become a law. 

The people were overjoyed at this. 

The King*s birthday coming soon after, there was 
in his honor a great celebration, and a liberty pole 
was planted on the Common, which in after years 
played an important part in the history of New 
York ; and a marble statue of William Pitt, Earl 
of Chatham, was erected. This William Pitt had 
done more than any other man in England to 
secure the repeal of the Stamp Act, and had time 
awd time again spoken strongly against it. His 
statue was set up in Wall Street, and at the same 
time a statue of King George III., seated upon a 
horse, was erected on the Bowling Green. It fared 
ill with these statues later, as you will see. 

There was no longer a stamp act, but there was 
another act quite as disagreeable. It was called 
the Mutiny Bill, and it required that food and 
drink and sleeping- quarters be given to all the 

[134J 



The Beginning of Revolution 



British soldiers. Now the Mutiny Bill fell hardest 
upon New York, for New York was the head-quar- 
ters of the British army in America. The people 
refused to comply with this law, because they 
feared that it was the first step toward compelling 
them to support a great army in America. 

So the soldiers and citizens were again continu- 
ally at odds. 

Four years after the Stamp Act was repealed, 
during which time affairs were in a most unsettled 
state and the bitter feeling between the colonists and 
England was growing stronger with each passing 
day, the English Parliament declared that no tax 
was to be put on anything except tea. Tea was to 
be taxed, not so much for the money that would 
thus go to the King, but to show that he had the 
right to tax the colonists. This did not settle mat- 
ters in the least. The colonists had sworn to resist 
all taxes, and to have a tax on one article was as 
bad, to their minds, as having taxes on all. But 
the merchants were not prospering, for, not import- 
ing goods from England, they had none to sell. So 

[•35] 



The Story of Manhattan 



a committee of lOO men was appointed to see what 
could be done. This committee decided that it 
would be right for the merchants to import every- 
thing they needed except tea. And the merchants 
welcomed this decision and agreed to it. 

But the fiery Sons of Liberty refused to listen to 
any such compromise. They insisted on keeping 
the non-importation agreement until the duty on 
tea, as well as all other duties, should be done 
away with once and for all. So they determined to 
maintain it until the end, and they did maintain it 
well. Day by day the soldiers of King George 
III. and the citizens became greater enemies. 
Although the soldiers tried many times to drag 
down the liberty pole, it was well defended, and it 
stood until one night in January, 1770, when they 
tore it down and chopped it into pieces. This act 
led to the battle of Golden Hill, which was the 
first real battle of the American Revolution. 



[136] 



CHAPTER XXII 



Fighting the Tax on 
Tea 



ABIT of rising ground, not a great way from 
the Common, was called Golden Hill. 
Here there was an inn. To this day the 
elevation of ground can be seen (where John Street 
crosses William), and the inn still stands. While 
the thought of the wrecked liberty pole was still 
fresh in mind, some of the Sons of Liberty came 
suddenly upon a number of soldiers close by this 
inn. There was a running fight, the soldiers using 
their guns and cutlasses and the others beating 
them back with staves and sticks. More soldiers 
came and the fight grew in fury. Already one man 
had received his death-blow and a dozen had been 
injured, when several officers came galloping up 
the road and the soldiers were ordered back to 
their barracks. This was the battle of Golden 
Hill. 

[137J 



The Story of Manhattan 



Very often after this the soldiers and the citizens 
clashed and sometimes came to blows, and progress 
was at a standstill because of the turbulence of the 
times. Public improvements were neglected and 
very little business was carried on. 

In the third year after the battle of Golden Hill, 
the British Government decided to make the colo- 
nists buy tea whether they wanted to or not. So 
the price was put down until tea could be bought 
in New York cheaper than it could be bought 
in England. This did no good, for though the 
tea was cheap the tax was on it and it was the 
tax and not the price of which the people com- 
plained. The Sons of Liberty, when they heard 
that ships loaded with cheap tea were on the way 
from England, said they would not even permit it 
to be landed. The first ship in port was under the 
command of a captain named Lockyer, who, when 
he learned of the strong efforts made to prevent the 
landing of the tea, determined to return to England 
with his cargo. He anchored his ship in the bay 
and came in a small boat to the city. The people, 

[138J 



Fighting the Tax 07i Tea 



joyful over his decision, decided to give him a 
pubUc leave-taking. 

Within a few days another ship sailed into the 
bay, commanded by Captain Chambers, who in- 
sisted that he had no tea on board. When told 
that his vessel would be searched, he admitted that 
he had a few chests. That same night the citizens 
who had all day thronged the wharf, suddenly 
swarmed aboard the vessel. The hatches were 
ripped up, and the eighteen chests of tea hauled on 
deck. There they were torn into pieces and the 
contents scattered into the river. Having done this 
the crowds dispersed and all was quiet again. 

Next day came the public leave-taking of Cap- 
tain Lockyer. He had spent the night at the 
coffee-house in Wall Street, and here, early in the 
morning, there was a great assembly. The bells 
of the city chimed merrily ; flags floated from the 
houses, and the ships in the bay were decorated with 
gay colors. 

From the balcony of the coff'ee-house the Cap- 
tain bowed while the crowds cheered him. Fi- 

L139J 



The Story of Manhattan 



nally a committee escorted him to the foot of 
Wall Street, where he embarked In a pilot-boat 
which took him to his ship. Another committee, 




Ferry-House on East Rwer, J746, from an Old Print. 

with far less ceremony, escorted Captain Cham- 
bers to the same boat, and the two captains sailed 
away. 

Even before this had happened In New York, 
the citizens of Boston had dumped a cargo of tea 

[.40] 



Fighting the Tax on Tea 



into their harbor, and the British ParHament had 
closed the port of Boston ; which meant that no 
ships were permitted to sail in or out of it. By 
this it was hoped to stop all business in Boston, 
and really it did put an end to a great part of it. 
And General Thomas Gage, who now had charge 
of the British troops in America, undertook to 
see that the orders of the King were properly en- 
forced. 

This closing of the port of Boston aroused the 
thirteen British colonies in America. After a great 
deal of letter-writing it was decided to have men 
from each of these colonies meet and talk matters 
over. In September of this year (1774) they met 
in Philadelphia. At this meeting, which was called 
the First Continental Congress, it was decided that 
laws were made in England that were unjust to 
America, that the colonists objected to taxes that 
were fixed by Parliament and would buy no more 
goods from England while a tax was upon them ; 
and that they objected to the support of a large 
British army in the colonies. 

[hi] 



The Story of Manhattan 



And this First Continental Congress sent a peti- 
tion to King George III., saying that the unjust 
laws should be done away with. 

How the King received this petition is soon 
told. 



[14a] 



CHAPTER XXIII 



The Sons of Liberty at 
Turtle Bay 

NOW in New York almost everybody was 
anxious to carry out the decision of this 
First Continental Congress. 

But the Assembly said that the Congress had 
not been a lawful gathering and must not be 
obeyed. The colonists replied that they would do 
as they thought best, no matter what the King's 
Assembly ordered. 

You must know that some of the people sup- 
ported the royal cause and were called Royalists or 
Tories. The others were called Patriots or Whigs. 
The English called the patriots rebels. 

It had now come to be the year 1775, and mat- 
ters in Boston where the port had been closed were 
growing worse and worse. In the month of April 
some British soldiers passing through Lexington 
shot down a number of patriots. Messengers on 

[143 J 



The Story of Manhattan 



horseback sped through the colonies carrying news 
of this massacre. It was the first serious encounter 
of the Revolution and the colonists realized that 
they were now at war with the British. Men rushed 
to arms. Farmers left their homes. Professional 
men hurried from the towns. Within a few days 
an army surrounded Boston and penned in the 
British troops there. 

When the messenger reached New York with 
the news of the Lexington massacre, a Provisional 
Assembly was formed which was to look after the 
city without regard to the Assembly which already 
existed. And this is the way it came about that 
there was a king's government and a people's 
government. Shops were closed and armed citi- 
zens paraded the streets. Matters went on in this 
fashion for a month, when a Second Continental 
Congress met at Philadelphia. 

As it was now seen that there was to be a serious 
conflict with Great Britain, the army gathered about 
Boston was adopted as the beginning of the forces 
to be assembled and was termed the Continental 

[144] 



The Sons of Liberty at Turtle Bay 



Army, and George Washington was appointed 
commander-in-chief. 

Knowing that they would soon need guns and 
powder, the Sons of Liberty seized those held by 
the royal troops in New York. There was quite a 




East River Shore, /750, from an Old Print. 

quantity in a storehouse at Turtle Bay, a quiet 
little cove three miles above the town, that curved 
into a wild and rocky part of the East River shore. 
Nowadays the city extends for miles and miles 
above it. If you go to Forty-ninth Street and the 

[HS] 



The Story of Manhattan 



East River you will see all that remains of it. Al- 
though the houses are built thick about it, there is 
still an air of seclusion. Everywhere else along 
the shore are piers and bath-houses and wharves 
and ships and shipping. 

So at this Turtle Bay, far from the town, the 
royal troops had a storehouse for their arms. A 
small band of the Sons of Liberty, one dark night, 
floated down the river, guided their vessel into the 
bay, overpowered the guards before they were fairly 
aroused, and loaded their boat with the enemy's 
powder and guns. Then they made off, and be- 
fore the morning dawned had placed the stores safe 
in the hands of the patriots. 

Then the War of the Revolution broke in full 
fury. 



[146] 



CHAPTER XXIV 



The War of the Revo 

LUTION 



IN this month of June, in the year 1775, there 
were quite a number of British soldiers in the 
city, and many of the patriots believed that 
they should be made prisoners. But the Provi- 
sional Assembly decreed that the orders of the Sec- 
ond Continental Congress must be obeyed. And 
these orders were not to molest the soldiers as 
long as they did not try to build fortifications or 
remove powder and guns from the city. 

But early in this month of June it was learned 
that the soldiers were about to go to Boston. 
More than that, it was known that there was a 
secret order under which they were to take guns 
and powder with them. 

The Sons of Liberty were hastily called to a 
meeting. One of them, Marinus Willett, was 
hurrying through Broad Street toward the Coffee- 

[147] 



The Story of Manhattan 



House where the meeting was to be held, when he 
came upon the soldiers moving silently along with 
five carts loaded with chests of arms. Alone, and 
without an instant's hesitation, Willett clutched at 
the bridle of the first horse. The company stopped. 
There was an angry parley, the officers claim- 
ing the right to leave the city with the arms, and 
making an effort to do so without raising a general 
alarm. But friends of Willett came to his assist- 
ance. The five carts were driven away by the 
patriots and the soldiers went on but without the 
arms. Long years afterward a bronze tablet was 
placed on a house in Broad Street close by Beaver 
(and is there now), to mark the spot where the 
brave Willett stopped the ammunition wagons. 

In this same month a battle was fought between 
the British army in Boston and the Continental 
army which was encamped outside of Boston. It 
was fought on a bit of high ground near the city, 
and was called the Battle of Bunker Hill. 

Just at this time word came that General George 
Washington, the newly appointed commander-in- 

[148] 



The War of the Revolution 



chief, was on his way from Philadelphia to the Con- 
tinental army, and would pass through New York 
City. Washington with his aides and a company 
of soldiers were hurrying across New Jersey on 
horseback, and when they reached the city they 
were met by a committee from the Provisional 
Assembly, with a number of patriot soldiers. 

The next morning Washington set out for Bos- 
ton. He had not yet left the town when a ship 
appeared in the bay having on board Governor 
William Tryon, who had been visiting in England 
for nearly a year. Governor Tryon did not remain 
long in the city though, as it was not a comfortable 
place for a royal Governor just then. He hurriedly 
left one night and went aboard one of the British 
ships in the bay. 

At the close of this year Washington was still 
before Boston with the Continental army. An- 
other section of the army was in the North, fighting 
against the British in Canada. This last branch 
was encamped about the walls of Quebec in the last 
month of the year. It was under the command of 

[149] 



The Story of Manhattan 



General Richard Montgomery, of New York, a 
brilliant soldier who had fought in the French and 
Indian wars. Quebec was stormed, but was too 
strong to be taken. Montgomery fell crying, 
" Men of New York, you will not fear to follow 
where your general leads." He was buried with 
military honors in Quebec, for the British honored 
him as a brave man. Forty-three years later his 
remains were removed to New York, and placed 
beneath the portico of St. Paul's Chapel, where his 
tomb may now be seen. 

Fighting by the side of Montgomery when he 
fell was a youth who was singled out for his brav- 
ery. His name was Aaron Burr. You are to hear 
more of him, for many and many a time in after 
years the eyes of the entire country were turned 
upon him. 



['50] 



CHAPTER XXV 



A Battle on Long 
Island 



AND now, early in the next spring, George 
Washington came again to New York, 
having at last forced the British troops 
from Boston. The city, which was under the con- 
trol of the patriots, was in a state of excitement, as 
it seemed probable that this was to be the next 
point of attack. Every person who favored the 
cause of the King, or who was suspected of favoring 
it, was looked upon with distrust. One-third of 
the citizens had fled. The soldiers of the Conti- 
nental army were arriving daily. Women and chil- 
dren were rarely seen upon the streets. Many of 
the royalists' houses, which had been closed when 
their owners fled, were broken open to give sleeping 
quarters to the soldiers. 

At the outbreak of the war the people's grievance 
had been simply taxation without representation. 



The Story of Manhattan 



but by this time the desire for complete independ- 
ence had taken fast hold of them. This feeling 
swept through the colonies, and when the Con- 
tinental Congress met in June of this year, it voted 
that the united colonies should be free and inde- 
pendent States and have no further political connec- 
tion with Great Britain. A declaration of independ- 
ence was adopted on July 4th, and the British 
colonies became the United States of America. 

A horseman brought the news to New York, and 
there was great rejoicing. The soldiers of the new 
Union then in the city were ordered to the Com- 
mon, and there, early in the evening, standing in a 
hollow square — close by where the City Hall is 
now — and surrounded by a great concourse of peo- 
ple, Washington read the address that proclaimed 
the birth of a free and independent nation. 

Following the reading the great throng applauded 
and then, filled with enthusiasm, rushed away. At 
the City Hall in Wall Street they tore down the 
painting of King George HI. and trampled it under 
foot. On again they went to the Bowling Green, 



A Battle on Long Island 



and there they dragged down the statue of the same 
royal person which had been erected only a few 
years before. The scattered fragments of the 
leaden statue were afterward gathered up and 
moulded into bullets. 

This same month General William Howe, com- 
mander of the British army, had landed on Staten 
Island, with his brother, Admiral Howe of the 
British navy, and with the soldiers and sailors of 
their commands, made up a fine, well-drilled army 
of 35,000 men, who had come to fight a force of 
20,000 recruits ; men not at all well-versed in war, 
and nearly half of whom were ill and not able to be 
on duty. 

But Washington calmly watched the British on 
Staten Island, and the British ships, more than 
400 of them, in the bay, and was not at all dis- 
mayed. Once General Howe wrote to Washington 
suggesting measures that would lead to peace, but 
nothing came of it. 

Late in the month of August the fighting com- 
menced. General Howe led his forces to Long 

L'53j 



The Story of Manhattan 



Island — led 21,000 men, for he thought that the 
best way to capture New York was to first vanquish 
the army on Long Island by an overwhelming 
force. Then the subduing of the city across the 
river would be easy. 

Washington hurried what men he could across 
to Long Island to assist those already there. But 
even then the Americans were outnumbered as two 
to one. The patriots fought long and well, but 
they were defeated. Two hundred or more were 
killed, and three times as many, including three 
generals, were made prisoners. But more than 300 
of the British were also killed. 

The day after the battle, the American army was 
in Brooklyn, penned in on the land side by the 
British troops and on the other by the wide, swift- 
running river. It was raining in torrents. Wash- 
ington was there. He planned a retreat that was 
to save his army. All the boats to be found along 
the shores of the Island of Manhattan were taken 
to Brooklyn in the dead of night. Silently the 
soldiers were put aboard, so silently that, although 

[154] 



A Battle on Long Island 



the British were almost within speaking distance, no 
sound of the departing army reached them. The 
point where they embarked was close by where the 
East River Bridge now touches the Brooklyn shore. 
It was daylight before the last of the troops got 
aboard, but a heavy fog shielded them as well as 
had the darkness. 

When the sun swept the fog away, General Howe 
gazed in wonder at the spot where the American 
forces had been the night before. But they were 
gone, with the swiftness and silence of magic ! 
The magician was Washington, who had not slept 
from the hour of defeat until his men were safe 
again in New York. But they were not to remain 
there long, as more exciting work was before them. 



[155: 



CHAPTER XXVI 



The British Occupy 
New York 



MILES and miles above the little city of 
New York, on a road which led up 
through the Island of Manhattan, there 
was a stately house in a stretch of country and 
forest land overlooking the Hudson River. This 
was the house of Charles Ward Apthorpe and 
was known as the Apthorpe mansion. Here Gen- 
eral Washington went after the retreat from Long 
Island, to devise a plan for the battles that were to 
come. 

The city was well fortified, but Washington 
understood full well that it could not be held long 
against a British attack. For the British soldiers 
were already on the islands of the East River, and 
the British ships held possession of the harbor and 
of both rivers. So Washington sent the main body 
of his army to Harlem Heights at the northern end 

[>S6J 



The British Occupy New York 



of the Island of Manhattan, and left only a force 
of 4,000 men, under General Putnam, in New 
York. 

Washington desiring to learn the plans of the 
enemy, called for someone who would be willing to 
go into the British lines. This was a dangerous 
undertaking, for capture meant certain death. But 
there was a young officer who was anxious to un- 
dertake the mission, and the arrangements were 
made. This was Nathan Hale. In disguise he 
made his way, learned the number of the enemy, 
and learned, too, all about the plan of attack. 
With this information he was hurrying back to 
General Washington, when he was recognized as 
belonging to the American army, and was arrested. 
In a few days, when he was tried, he freely admitted 
that he had acted as Washington's spy. He died 
as he had lived — bravely. A moment before he 
was hanged he was asked if he wished to say any 
word. " Yes,'** he answered ; and looking firmly 
into the faces of those who stood about him, " I 
only regret that I have but one life to lose for my 

[■57] 



The Story of Manhattan 



country.'* No wonder that the memory of the 
Martyr Spy has hved through the passing years ! 

Sixteen days after Washington and his men re- 
treated from Long Island, the British sailed up the 
East River and anchored opposite a little inlet 
called Kip's Bay (at the foot of what is now Thirty- 
sixth Street). They fired upon those who defended 
the bay, and under cover of this fire landed ; and 
the American soldiers scurried away up the island 
toward the north. 

General Howe led his men on for half a mile, 
until they reached a large country house. This was 
the home, and all about it was the farm, of a family 
named Murray (who gave their name to Murray 
Hill). These Murrays were friendly to the patriots, 
but they were also well acquainted with Governor 
Tryon, who was with the British army. So the 
army rested close by the house, and Howe, Tryon, 
and the other officers were given a fine dinner by 
Mrs. Murray. 

Now although the Americans had retreated north 
up the island from Kip's Bay, and were safely on 

[158] 




Mrs. Murray's Dinner to British Officers. 



The British Occupy New York 



their way to the main army on Harlem Heights, 
you must remember there were 4,000 soldiers still 
in the city. So the British were in the centre of 
the island with a very large force ; the main body 
of the Americans was to the north ; while to the 
south was this little band of 4,000, far away from 
their army and in a position to be trapped by the 
British. Had the British officers at once decided 
to stretch their men across the island, the 4,000 
would have been penned up on the lower part and 
would have been made prisoners. It therefore 
seemed to Putnam's men that there was but one 
way for them to escape capture, and that was by 
slipping past the British who rested at Murray 
house and joining the main army on Harlem 
Heights. 

The Murrays understood the condition of af- 
fairs, so they were particularly cordial to their 
British guests and detained them as long as they 
could at dinner. They were still feasting when 
General Putnam started his 4,000 men marching 
toward the north. 

[.6.] 



The Story of Manhattan 



He galloped far in advance, for the country was 
rough and his soldiers could walk but slowly. He 
galloped north, and Washington, hanging to the 
rear of the retreating troops from Kip's Bay, the 




Howe'' s Head-Quartersy Beekman House. 

generals met where two roads crossed, close by 
where Broadway now crosses Forty-third Street. 
Washington instructed Putnam to hurry his 4,000 
on before they were irretrievably cut off from the 
main army. They did hurry on. They drew near 

[162] 



The British Occupy New York 



the Murray house ; they formed a Hne two miles 
long that moved silently over the road that led 
them to within half a mile of where the British 
soldiers were feasting. The line passed this point. 
Scarcely had the last man gone by when the British 
were on the move, half an hour too late for the 
capture of 4,000 prisoners. 

Now the American forces were all together in 
a solid mass, moving toward the upper end of the 
island ; plodding through pouring rain, almost 
dropping from the exhaustion of their long march — 
but safe. 

This same night a division of the British soldiers 
occupied New York. The others, close on the 
heels of the American army, waited for the morn- 
ing. 



[163] 



CHAPTER XXVI I 



The Battle of Harlem 
Heights 



WHEN the sun rose next morning (it was 
September i6th), the American army 
and the British army lay encamped each 
on a highland close beside one another separated 
by a valley. 

The ground occupied by the British soldiers was 
then Vandewater Heights. Much of this high 
ground still remains and is now called Columbia 
Heights, and Columbia University and Grant's 
Tomb are upon it. The American forces were 
scattered over what was then Harlem Heights, as 
far as Washington's head-quarters in the country 
mansion overlooking the Harlem River above 
Harlem Plains. It was the house of Roger Morris, 
a royalist who had fled at the approach of the 
American soldiers, and it still stands at i6oth Street 
close by St. Nicholas Avenue. On the heights and 

[.64] 




Uusiicll ii tiiLilicH). N.y, 



The Story of Manhattan 



in the valley a battle was fought, beginning with a 
light engagement quite early in the day, with more 
and more men of both armies gradually joining in 
until there were 5,000 Americans against 6,000 
British, with several thousand of each side held in 
reserve. 

The battle ended in the afternoon with the de- 
feat of the British, who lost 200 of their number. 

This was a great victory for the Americans, who 
fought against superior numbers — great because the 
men had lost heart after the defeat on Long Island, 
and the forced retreat from the city. There was 
sorrow for the dead, for even victories have a sad 
side. Every one of the 100 American soldiers 
who were killed that day were brave men, and though 
all their names are not written m history, the manner 
of their death urged on their companions in the days 
that followed. 



[,66] 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

The British Fail to 

Sweep Everything 

Before Them 



ON the fourth day after the battle of Harlem 
Heights the soldiers of England were 
making themselves comfortable in New 
York when a great fire broke out. It swept over 
the city and 500 houses crumbled and fell in ashes 
before it was controlled. Almost the entire western 
part of the city was consumed, St. Paul's Chapel be- 
ing the only building of importance that was saved. 
Almost all who favored the American cause had 
fled. But a few remained, and there was a hint 
that these had started the fire. The British soldiers 
were angered when they saw the city they had just 
entered burning, and while the flames roared and 
the houses fell they rushed about and in their rage 
dashed out the brains of the citizens who sought to 

[•67] 



The Story of Manhattan 



beat back the flames from their homes. But it was 
afterward learned that the fire had started in quite 
an accidental manner. 

A little while after this General Howe moved 
with the greater part of the British army up the 
East River, and sailing on past the Island of Man- 
hattan, landed on the mainland beyond in West- 
chester. In this way the British were in the rear of 
the Americans, and within a few days the two 
armies coming together a battle was fought, in 
which the Americans were defeated. Washington 
and his men then retreated into New Jersey. 

General Howe next attacked Fort Washington, 
a high and rocky point on the banks of the Hud- 
son River (on a line with the present 178th Street). 
There were 3,000 men here, all the American sol- 
diers who were now on the island, and they held 
such a high and well-fortified position that they 
thought themselves quite safe. They doubtless 
would have been had not one of their number, 
William Demont, turned traitor. He told the 
British just how many men there were, and just 

[168] 



The Story of Manhattan 



how the fortress should be attacked. And the 
British stormed the fort as the traitor directed, and 
took it, and every one of the soldiers who had not 
been killed was made prisoner. This ended the 
actual fight for liberty in New York. 

But outside of New York the war went bravely 
on. Washington in New Jersey kept up the fight, 
but the winter came on and his army suffered ex- 
ceedingly. It had come to be a very small army 
by this time, for they were poorly fed and ill 
clothed and seldom had any sort of shelter. Nev- 
ertheless, Washington gained many victories in 
New Jersey and manoeuvred his little army so 
well that the whole world, hearing of his achieve- 
ments, was forced to recognize him as a great gen- 
eral. 

New York was the head-quarters of the British 
army in America, and the residence of its chief 
oflicers. The city was as thoroughly British as it 
had before been American, and it was as much as 
life was worth even to hint of an interest in the 
American cause. 

[170] 



The British Failure 



Early in the next year, 1777, those who had the 
making of the laws for the new State of New York, 
met in secret, and chose George Clinton as their 
first Governor. The other colonies had formed 
themselves into States, and the new nation grew 
stronger day by day. 

Commissioners were sent to the European courts 
to ask aid for the United States. Many young 
French noblemen, thrilled at the idea of fighting for 
liberty, came to America as volunteers, and by their 
knowledge of war gave valuable assistance to the 
American officers. The name of the Marquis de 
Lafayette stands out prominently as the chief of 
these volunteers. He was not yet twenty years 
old, but fitted out a vessel at his own expense and 
crossed the ocean to offer his services. He asked 
to be enlisted as a volunteer and to serve without 
pay, but he was soon appointed a major-general. 

When it had come to be July of this year, there 
was some fighting in the North, for the British 
General Burgoyne came down from Canada. He 
intended to meet the army under Howe which 

[171] 



The Story of Manhattan 



was marching northward, and the two armies 
were to sweep everything before them. Burgoyne 
defeated the Americans led by General Philip 
Schuyler, in several battles. Just at this time Gen- 
eral Schuyler's command was given to General 
Gates. Now Gates followed the plans that had 
been made by Schuyler, with the result that Bur- 
goyne and his entire force of 6,000 men surren- 
dered at Saratoga. This settled one branch of the 
British army. The other branch, under General 
Howe, took possession of Philadelphia, but the 
defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga put an end to their 
hopes of sweeping everything before them. 

In the last month of the year, Washington and 
his army took up winter quarters at Valley Forge 
so as to keep a close watch upon the British in 
Philadelphia. 



[172] 



CHAPTER XXIX 



New York a Prison 
House 



THE winter passed, and when the spring 
came the British army moved from Phila- 
delphia to New York City, but not with- 
out great trouble, for Washington's army fought 
them every step of the way across New Jersey. 

The city was now quite different from the flour- 
ishing town it had been before the war. Held pos- 
session of by the British, it was a military camp. 
No improvements were made. Many of the citi- 
zens who were loyal to the American cause had 
fled. Those who were too poor to leave pretended 
to favor the British, but as little business could be 
done, they could find no work, and their condition 
became worse daily. Thousands of American 
prisoners were brought here, making it a British 
prison-house, and every building of any size was a 
guard-house, every cellar a dungeon. 

[173] 



The Story of Manhattan 



One of the gloomiest of these prisons was an 
old sugar -house close by the Middle Dutch 
Church. It was built in the days of Jacob Leisler, 
with thick stone walls five stories high, pierced with 
small windows. The ceilings were so low and the 




Old Sugar-House in Liberty Street^ the Prison-House of the 
Revolution. 

windows so small that the air could scarcely find 
entrance. Underneath was a black and dismal cel- 
lar. The pale and shrunken faces of prisoners 
filled the openings at the windows by day and by 
night, seeking a breath of air. They were so 

[174] 



New York a Prison-House 



jammed together that there was by no means room 
at the windows for all. So these wretched men 
divided themselves into groups, each group crowd- 
ing close to the windows for ten minutes, then giv- 
ing place to another group. They slept on straw 
that was never changed, and the food given them 
was scarcely enough to keep them alive. Those 
who suffered this living death might have been free 
at any time had they been willing to go over to the 
British, but few of the patriots, even in this dread 
hour, deserted their cause. To while away the 
hours of their captivity, they carved their names 
upon the walls with rusty nails. Fevers raged con- 
stantly and they died by scores, leaving their half- 
finished initials on the walls as their only relics. 
Their bodies were thrown out of doors, and every 
morning gathered up in carts and carried to the 
outskirts of the city to be buried in a trench with- 
out ceremony. 

This was only one of a dozen such prison-houses. 
There was one other that, if anything, was worse. 
It was the New Jail, and it still stands in City Hall 

[1 75 J 



The Story of Manhattan 



Park and is now the Hall of Records. During the 
war it was known as The Provost, because it was 
the head-quarters of a provost-marshal named Cun- 
ningham. It was his custom at the conclusion of 
his drunken revels to parade his weak, ill, half-fed 
prisoners before his guests, as fine specimens of the 
rebel army. It is said of him, too, that he poisoned 
those who died too slowly of cold and starvation, 
and then went right on drawing money to feed 
them. This gave rise to the saying that he starved 
the living and fed the dead. He took a great delight 
in being as cruel and merciless as he could, and very 
often boasted that he had caused the death of more 
rebels than had been killed by all of the King's forces. 
Many American sailors were also captured (for 
the Revolution was fought on the sea as well as on 
land) and all these were placed aboard prison-ships — 
useless hulks, worn-out freight-boats, and abandoned 
men-of-war. For a time these hulks were anchored 
close by the Battery, but afterward they were taken 
to the Brooklyn shore. There was misery and suf- 
fering on all of them, but the worst was called the 

[176J 



New York a Prison-House 



" Jersey," where captives were crowded into the 
hold, the sick and the well, poorly fed and scarcely 
clothed, so many of them as hardly to permit space 
to lie down, watched over by a guard of merciless 
soldiers. Disease in a dozen forms was always 
present, and every morning the living were forced 
to carry out those who had died over night. 

During this year 1778, and for several years after, 
the war was carried on for the most part in the 
South, in Georgia and South Carolina, while the 
British soldiers in the city made trips into the sur- 
rounding country and laid it waste. Washington 
and his army in New Jersey could do little more 
than watch. 

In the year 1780 the American cause came very 
near receiving a serious check, when an officer high 
in rank turned traitor. This man was Benedict 
Arnold, and had been a vigorous fighter. But now 
he bargained with the British to turn over to them 
West Point, where he was chief in command. Ma- 
jor John Andre, a brilliant young officer under the 
British General Clinton, was sent to make the final 

[177] 



The Story of Manhattan 



arrangements. Andre was returning to New York 
when he was captured with the plans of West Point 
concealed in his boots. He was hanged as a spy, 
and Arnold, escaping to the British in New York, 
fought with them, despised by the Americans and 
mistrusted by the English ; for a traitor can never 
be truly liked or respected even by those who bene- 
fit by his treachery. 

The War of the Revolution went on until the 
fall of the year 1781, when General Washington 
made a sudden move that drew his men away from 
the vicinity of New York before the British army 
could foresee it. Then he hurried to the South. 
There, at Yorktown, in Virginia, the combined 
American army hemmed in, and after a battle 
forced to surrender. Lord Cornwallis, the British 
commander in the South, and all his men. 

This victory was so great that it really ended the 
war. Great Britain gave up the struggle, and a 
treaty of peace was signed. 

And now you will see how the British army left 
the city of New York. 

[178] 



CHAPTER XXX 



After the War 



ON a crisp, cold day, late in the fall, a tall, 
mild-faced man on a spirited horse passed 
down the Bowery Road, followed by a 
long train of soldiers whose shabby clothes and 
worn faces told of days of trial and hardship. This 
was General George Washington with a portion of 
the Continental army. They were entering New 
York on this same day when the British troops 
were leaving it. 

But although the British were leaving under the 
terms of the treaty of peace, and had gone on 
board ships that were to take them to England, 
there were many who were filled with rage at this 
enforced departure. At the fort by the river-side 
they had knocked the cleats off the flag-pole, and 
had greased the pole so that no one could climb it 
to put up the United States flag and thus flaunt it 
in the face of the departing troops. But the sol- 

[179] 



The Story of Manhattan 



diers of Washington who reached the fort just as 
the last British company was leaving, set to work 
with hammer and saw. They made new cleats for 
the pole. Then a young sailor — his name was 
John Van Arsdale — filling his pockets with the 
cleats and nailing them above him as he climbed 
the pole step by step, was able to put the flag in 
position. And as it floated to the breeze a salute 
of thirteen guns sounded while the British troops 
were still within hearing. 

So now the city of New York, which for seven 
years the British had occupied, was again in posses- 
sion of the citizens. 

General Washington only remained here a few 
days. He made his head-quarters in Fraunces's 
Tavern, in Broad Street, and there at noon on De- 
cember 4th, his officers assembled to hear his words 
of farewell. It was an affectionate parting of men 
who had suffered danger and privations together. 
There were tears in Washington's eyes. 

" With a heart full of love and gratitude," said 
he, " I now take my leave of you, and most de- 

[180] 



M^iil^IZhii 




J!i=^ 









Co 



After the War 



voutly wish that your latter days may be as pros- 
perous and happy as your former ones have been 
glorious and honorable." 

It was not a time for much talking, and Wash- 
ington was soon gone, leaving real sorrow behind 
him. Within a few weeks he had resigned his 
commission as commander-in-chief, and had re- 
tired as a private citizen to his home at Mount 
Vernon. 

The city of New York was in quite a deplorable 
state. The wide tract swept by the fire of 1776 
still lay in blackened ruins. No effort had been 
made to rebuild except where temporary wooden 
huts had been set up by the soldiers. The 
churches, all of which had been used for one pur- 
pose or another, were dismantled, blackened, and 
marred. There was scarcely a house in all the lit- 
tle town that had not been ill-used by the soldiers. 
Fences were down, and the streets were filled with 
rubbish. It was a city stricken with premature 
decay. Business life was dead, and would have to 
be begun all over again. The citizens were di- 

I'«3J 



The Story of Manhattan 



vided against themselves. Feuds existed every- 
where. Patriots who had fled and had now come 
back felt a deep bitterness against those who had 
adopted the royal cause for the purpose of keeping 
possession of their property. These, however, 
complained just as bitterly because now their 
homes were taken from them in the adjustment. 

King's College, of which you have been told, 
had been closed all during the war, and had been 
used as a hospital. It was opened now, but was 
called Columbia College, as the King no longer had 
any claims on the city or its institutions. 

During the next few years business slowly re- 
vived, and day by day the city was rebuilt, growing 
into something like its old self 

Some little distance above the Common was the 
City Hospital. There came rumors at this time 
that the bodies of the dead were being stolen from 
the graveyards and used by the students for dis- 
secting purposes. There was no truth in these 
stories, yet many persons became alarmed. They 
gathered, broke into the hospital and destroyed 

[.84] 



After the War 



everything of value. The doctors fled to the jail 
on the Common for protection. The mob de- 
termined to seize them, and tore down the fences 
about the jail. Then the Mayor gathered a body 
of citizens to oppose the mob. As night came 
on, the rioters, becoming more and more destruc- 
tive, were fired upon and five were killed. After 
this they scampered away, the trouble was over, 
and that was the last of the Doctors' Mob. 



[185] 



CHAPTER XXXI 



The First President of 
the United States 



REBUILDING a city and forming a new 
nation is such a great task that you can 
readily beheve it was not accompHshed 
without some difficulty. The colonies were free 
from the rule of the English King, but it was 
necessary for them to learn to govern themselves. 

Each of the new States now had its own govern- 
ment. It was thought by many that there should 
be some powerful central government to control all 
the States. So after a great deal of deliberation a 
convention was held in Philadelphia over which 
George Washington presided. After four months 
of hard work the present Constitution of the United 
States was given to each State to be approved. 

There was strong need for this step to be taken, 
but there were a great many who did not want it, 
because they thought it would give the President as 

[i86] 



The First President of the United States 



much power as a king, and as they had gone to 
some cost to rid themselves of a king, they did not 
wish another. Those who wanted a central gov- 
ernment were called Federalists. Those who did 
not want it were called Anti-Federalists. 

In New York there was one man who did every- 
thing that man could do to convince others that the 
central government was the best thing for the good 
of the new nation. His name was Alexander 
Hamilton. He was a young man who had been, 
ever since he was a boy, a friend of George Wash- 
ington ; who had lived in Washington's family and 
had fought as an officer side by side with Wash- 
ington, and was a man of much power and deep 
learning. 

This Constitution of the United States had been 
approved by nine of the States, when, in June, 1788, 
a convention was held to determine whether New 
York was to approve it or not. At this convention 
Alexander Hamilton spoke eloquently, in an effort 
to have the Constitution approved. 

The convention was still meeting in July, hav- 

[•87] 



The Story of Manhattan 



ing come to no decision, when the followers of 
Hamilton, the Federalists, had a great parade 
through the streets of New York. It was the first 
big parade in the city, and the grandest spectacle 




Cele brat 1071 of the Adopt io7i of the Cojistitution. 

that had ever been seen in America up to this time. 
The most imposing part of it was a great wooden 
ship on wheels, made to represent the Ship of State, 
and called the " Federal Ship Hamilton." The 

[i88j 



The First President of the United States 



parade was a mile and a half long and there were 
five thousand men in it. It passed along the streets 
of the city, past the fort, and on up Broadway over 
the tree-covered hill above the Common, and on 
to the Bayard Farm beyond the Collect Pond. 
There a halt was made and the thousands of people 
sat down on the grass to a dinner. 

Three days after this the convention approved of 
the Constitution for the State of New York. And 
so the majority of the States having agreed to it, in 
the next year George Washington was chosen as the 
first President of the United States, and the city of 
New York was selected as the temporary seat of the 
general government. 



[189] 



,/ 



CHAPTER XXXII 



The Welcome 
to George Washington 



NOW that New York was the seat of the na- 
tional government, the old City Hall in 
Wall Street was made larger and fitted 
up in grand style and was called Federal Hall. 

In April George Washington came to this city 
from his home at Mount Vernon. Every step of 
his way, by carriage and on horseback, was a march 
of triumph. The people in towns and villages and 
countryside greeted him with shouts and signs of 
affection. But it was in New York that the great- 
est welcome was given him. 

The city had taken on a most picturesque ap- 
pearance. Every house was decorated with colors, 
and when Washington landed from a barge at the 
foot of Wall Street, he walked up a stairway strewn 
with flowers. The streets were so thronged that 
way could scarcely be made. Not only were the 

[190] 



The Welcome to George Washington 



streets filled, but every window and every house- 
top. The people waited for hours, and when 
Washington arrived a wild hubbub commenced 
that kept up all the day long. 

Washington was escorted to the house that had 
been prepared for him, a little way out of town at 
the top of a hill. 

If in the days that you read this you walk along 
Pearl Street until you come to the East River 
bridge at Franklin Square, a part of the city crowd- 
ed with tenements and factories, you will stand 
close by where the house was. On the abutment 
of the bridge you will find a tablet that has been 
riveted to the stone, so that all who pass may 
know that Washington once lived there. The 
house was built by Walter Franklin, a rich mer- 
chant, and was therefore called the Franklin House. 
The square, however, does not take its name from 
this man, but from the renowned Benjamin Frank- 
Hn. 

Very soon, on a bright, sunshiny day, Washing- 
ton stood on the balcony of Federal Hall, sur- 

[193 J 



The Story of Manhattan 



rounded by the members of the Senate and the 
House of Representatives, with the citizens throng- 
ing every inch of the nearby streets. And there he 



The John Street Theatre, Il8l. 

took the oath of office, and having taken it the cry 
was raised, " Long Live George Washington, First 
President of the United States," a cry that was 

[•94] 



The Welcome to George Washington 



echoed from street to street, and went on echoing 
out into the country beyond. 

The Hfe of the First President was a simple 
and a busy one. He rose at four o'clock each 
morning and went to bed at nine in the even- 
ing. Many hours a day he worked at matters of 
state, receiving all who called, so that there was 
quite a stream of people going to and from the 
Franklin House at all times. Sometimes during 
the day he took a long drive with Mrs. Washington, 
which he called the " Fourteen Miles 'round," going 
up one side of the island above the city and com- 
ing down the other. Sometimes of an evening he 
attended a performance at the little John Street 
Theatre. Always on Sunday he and all his fam- 
ily went to St. Paul's Chapel. And the pew 
in which they sat you can sit in if you go to 
that old chapel, for it has been preserved all these 
years. 

By this time the fort by the Bowling Green, 
which had stood since the days of the Dutch, was 
torn down to make room for a mansion that was to 

[195J 



The Story of Manhattan 



be called the Government House and be occupied 
by the President. 

The mansion was built, but you shall see pres- 
ently why no President ever occupied it. 



[196] 



CHAPTER XXXIII 



Concerning the 

Tammany Society and 

Burr's Bank 



THERE was formed just about this time, in 
fact the very month after Washington's 
inauguration, an organization which wa? 
called the Tammany Society. And out of this 
society grew the great political body — Tammany 
Hall. The Tammany Society took its name from 
a celebrated Indian chief, and at first had as its 
central purpose the effort to keep a love of country 
strong in every heart. The best men in the city 
belonged to the Tammany Society, which held 
meetings and transacted business under all sorts of 
odd and peculiar forms. It divided the seasons of 
the year into the Season of Blossoms, the Season 
of Fruits, the Season of Moons, and the Season of 
Snows, instead of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and 

[197] 



The Story of Manhattan 



Winter. And the head of the order was called the 
Grand Sachem or Chief. 

New York now became a very active and a very 
brilliant city indeed, and all manner of improve- 
ments were made. The first sidewalks were laid 
along Broadway, just above St. Paul's Chapel. 
They were pavements of brick, so narrow that two 
persons could scarcely walk along side by side. 
Then the high hill crossed by Broadway just above 
the Common was cut away so that the street 
stretched away as broad and as straight as you see 
it to-day. Numbers were put on the houses and 
streets were cut through the waste lands about the 
Collect Pond, and the barracks which were built for 
the British soldiers were torn away as unsightly 
structures. These barracks were log huts a story 
high, enclosed by a high wall. The gate at one 
end, called Tryon's Gate, gave the name to Try- 
on's Row as it now exists. Trinity Church, which 
had been in ruins since the fire, was rebuilt, as 
well as many, many other houses. 

Now the fact that the city was the seat of the 

[i9«J 



The Tammany Society and Burr's Bank 



national government and was the home of Wash- 
ington had much to do with its improvement. But 
New York had only been fixed upon as the capital 
temporarily, and a dozen States were anxious for 
that honor. Finally, in the second year that Wash- 
ington was President, it was decided to build a city 
which should be the seat of the general govern- 
ment, on land given by the States of Maryland and 
Virginia for that purpose and called the District of 
Columbia. While the city (which was given the 
name of Washington) was being built, the seat of 
government was to be in Philadelphia, and Wash- 
ington went there to live. A great many of the 
gay and brilHant company that had been attracted 
to the capital followed him there, and for a time 
New York languished in neglect. 

It now began to look as though the United 
States would be drawn into another war with Great 
Britain. For the French Revolution was in prog- 
ress and the French people were at war with the 
English, and thought that the Americans should 
help them as they had helped the Americans in 

[199] 



The Story of Manhattan 



Revolutionary times. But President Washington 
and some of the very wise and good people about 
him thought it best to have nothing to do with 
it. So a treaty was made between England and the 
United States, and the French did not get the help 
they asked. 

Some of the citizens of New York, quite a large 
number of them, were very angry when they heard 
of this treaty and burned a copy of it on the Bowl- 
ing Green, with all sorts of threats. But after a 
time those who had shouted against it changed 
their minds. They had something more serious to 
think of nearer home before many years, for the 
small-pox broke out in the city and thousands 
upon thousands hurried away to escape the dread 
disease. All business was at a standstill, and even 
the churches were closed. When the scourge had 
spent its force, it was found that more than 2,000 
had died of it. 

There was one man who took advantage of the 
small-pox scare to his own profit. This was Aaron 
Burr. You will remember him as a boy fighting 

[aoo] 



The Tammany Society arid Burr's Bank 



by the side of Montgomery in Canada. He was 
now a lawyer known for his great skill the country 
over ; a man of education and deep learning. He 
was the leader of a political party, a party which 
contended with, fought with, disagreed with at 
every turn the party of which Alexander Hamilton 
was one of the chief leaders. 

Now there were two banks in the city, both of 
which were under the control of the party to which 
Alexander Hamilton belonged. Aaron Burr deter- 
mined that his party should have a bank, too. 
The citizens were prejudiced against banks, and did 
not want a new one. But Burr determined to es- 
tablish one, and set about it in a most peculiar way. 
All at once the report got about that the small-pox 
had been caused by the well-water. This was 
about all there was to drink in the city, except that 
which came from a few springs and was said to be 
very impure indeed. So Aaron Burr and his 
friends secured a charter for a company that was to 
supply clear, pure water. This pleased the citizens 
very much. But there was a clause in the charter 

[201 ) 



The Story of Manhattan 



to the effect that as all the money might not be 
needed for the bringing of water into the city, that 
which remained could be used for any purpose the 
company saw fit. Only those in the secret under- 
stood that the money was to be used to start a 




Reservoir of Manhattari Water-Works in Chambers Street. 



bank. So the company dug deep wells not far 
from the Collect Pond, and pumped water from 
them into a reservoir which was built close by the 
Common on Chambers Street, and then sent it 
through the city by means of curious wooden 

[202J 



The Tammany Society and Burr's Bank 



pipes. This water was really just as impure as that 
which had before been taken from the wells, and it 
was not long before the new water-works were 
known to be a failure. Then the company gave all 
their attention to the bank, which had in the mean- 
while been started. 

This company of Aaron Burr's was called the 
Manhattan Company, and their Manhattan- Bank 
has been kept going ever since and is still in exist- 
ence in a fine large building in Wall Street. 

So you see Aaron Burr this time got the better 
of Alexander Hamilton and his friends. 

If you turn the page you will read more of 
Hamilton and Burr. 



[203] 



CHAPTER XXXIV 



More about Hamilton 
and Burr 



THE dawn of the nineteenth century saw 
60,000 people in the city of New York 
and the town extending a mile up the 
island. Above the city were farms and orchards 
and the country homes of the wealthy. Where 




The Collect Pond. 

Broadway ended there was a patch of country 
called Lispenard's Meadow, and about this time a 
canal was cut through it from the Collect Pond to 

[204] 



More about Hamilton and Burr 



the Hudson River. This was the canal which long 
years afterward was filled in and gave its name to 
Canal Street. 

From time to time there were projects for setting 
out a handsome park about the shores of the Col- 
lect Pond, but the townspeople thought it was too 
far away from the city. But in a few years the city 
grew up to the Collect Pond, which was then filled 
in, and to-day a gloomy prison (The Tombs) is 
built upon the spot. 

One of the new undertakings was the building of 
a new City Hall, as the old one in Wall Street was 
no longer large enough. So the present City Hall 
was begun on what was then the Common, but it was 
not finished for a good ten years. The front and 
sides were of white marble, and the rear of cheaper 
red sandstone, as it was thought that it would be 
many years before anyone would live far enough 
uptown to notice the difference. How odd this 
seems in these days, when the City Hall is quite at 
the beginning of the city. 

Aaron Burr had by this time been elected Vice- 
[205] 



The Story of Manhattan 



President of the United States. But he soon lost 
the confidence of the people, and when, in the year 
1803, he hoped to be made Governor of the State of 
New York, he was defeated. 

Now at this time Alexander Hamilton was still a 




The Grange, Kingsbridge Road, the Residerice of 
Alexander Hamilton. 

leader in the party opposed to Aaron Burr, and did 
everything possible to defeat him. And Burr, 
angered because of this, and believing that Hamil- 
ton had sought to bring dishonor upon him, chal- 
lenged Hamilton to a duel — the popular way of 

[206] 



More about Hamilton and Burr 



settling such serious grievances. So Hamilton 
accepted the challenge and on a morning in the 
middle of the summer of 1 804, just after sunrise, 
the duel took place on the heights of the shore of New 
Jersey, just above Weehawken. Hamilton fell at the 
first fire mortally wounded. The next day he died. 

There was great sorrow throughout the entire 
country, for he was a brave and good man, and had 
been a leader since the War of the Revolution. 
All the citizens followed him to his rest in Trinity 
Churchyard, and in the churchyard to-day you can 
see his tomb carefully taken care of and decorated, 
year by year. 

After the death of Hamilton the feeling against Burr 
in the city was bitter indeed, and he soon went away. 

A few years later, when a project was formed for 
establishing a great empire in the southwest and 
overthrowing the United States, this same Aaron 
Burr was thought to be concerned in the plot. 
When, after a trial, he was acquitted, he went to 
live in Europe. But he returned after a time, and 
the last years of his life were passed in New York. 

[207J 



CHAPTER XXXV 



Robert Fulton Builds 
a Steam-Boat 



THERE had come to be a great need for 
schools. There were private schools and 
there were school-rooms attached to some 
of the churches, but it was in this year, 1805, that 
the first steps were taken to have free schools 
for all. 

A kindly man named De Witt Clinton was 
Mayor of the city, and he, with some other citizens, 
organized the Free School Society that was to pro- 
vide an education for every child. The following 
year the first free school was opened. The society 
continued in force for forty-eight years, each year 
the number of its schools increasing, until finally all 
its property was turned over to the city. 

In the days when De Witt Clinton was Mayor 
the first steam-boat was built to be used on the 
Hudson River. For many a year there had been 

[208J 



Robert Fulton Builds a Steam-Boat 



men who felt sure that steam could be applied to 
boats and made to propel them against the wind 
and the tide. They had tried very hard to build 
such a boat but none had succeeded. Sometimes 
the boilers burst. Sometimes the paddle-wheels re- 
fused to revolve. For one reason or another the 
boats were failures. 

A man named John Fitch had built a Httle steam- 
boat and had tried it on the Collect Pond, where it 
had steamed around much to the surprise of the 
good people of the city who went to look at it. 
But it was considered more as a toy than anything 
else. Nothing came of the experiment, and the 
boat itself was neglected after a time and dragged 
up on the bank beside the lake, where it lay until 
it rotted away. 

Then Robert Livingston, who was chancellor of 
the city, felt sure he could build a steam-boat that 
would be of use. As he was a wealthy man he 
spent a great deal of money trying to make such a 
boat ; and as he was a very learned man he gave 
much thought to it. 

[209] 



The Story of Manhattan 



Chancellor Livingston was in France when he 
met another American, named Robert Fulton, who 
was an artist and a civil engineer, and who also 
hoped to build a boat that could be moved by 




The CJermouty Fultoii' s First Steam-Boat. 

steam. Livingston and Fulton decided that they 
would together build such a boat. 

So Fulton came back to New York and with the 
money given him by Livingston began to build a 
steam-boat which he called the Clermont — the name 
of Chancellor Livingston's country home. The 

[210] 



Robert Fulton Builds a Steam-Boat 



citizens laughed a good deal at the idea and called 
the boat " Fulton's Folly." In August, 1807, the 
Clermont was finished, and a crowd gathered to see 
it launched and to laugh at its failure. But the 
boat moved out into the stream and up the Hudson 
River, while the people gazed in wonder at the 
marvellous thing gliding through the water, moved 
apparently by some more than human force. It 
went all the way to Albany, and from that day on 
continued to make trips up and down the river. 
This was the first successful steam-boat in the world. 
Soon steam ferry-boats took the place of those 
which had been driven by horse-power. Quickly, 
too, after the success of the Clermont, steam navi- 
gation went rapidly forward on both sides of the 
ocean. Fulton made other and much better boats. 
Other men followed in his footsteps, and the great 
ocean liners of to-day are one of the results. 



[211] 



CHAPTER XXXVI 



The City Plan 



IT is interesting at this time to read how 
the streets came to be just where they are. 
The city was growing more rapidly than ever 
and the streets and byways met one another at 
every sort of angle, forming a tangled maze. To 
remedy this, a commission was formed of several of 
the prominent citizens to determine just what course 
the streets should take. Now this commission de- 
cided not to interfere with those that existed, but to 
map out the island above the city and plan for those 
that were to be. They worked for four years and 
then submitted, in the year 1811, what they called 
the City Plan. If you will look at a map, you will 
see at the lower part of the Island of Manhattan 
that the streets cross and recross each other in the 
most bewildering manner. And you will also see 
that above this jumble the streets and avenues ex- 
tend through the island in a regular and uniform 

[21a] 



The City Plan 



way. This change was the result of the City 
Plan. 

While the commission was making its plan, there 
came threatenings of war. Again England was at 
war with France, and those two countries in fighting 
one another very often injured the American ships. 
Besides, the British war-ships had a disagreeable 
way of searching American ships and taking charge 
of any EngHshmen they found on them, even those 
who had become American citizens. These same 
British war-ships often fired upon those American 
vessels whose captains objected to their being 
searched. 

So it came about that American ships carrying 
merchandise to other countries and bringing mer- 
chandise to American ports were interfered with 
more and more, and American commerce was thus 
ruined, for no American ship was safe. The end 
came early in the year 1 8 12, when the United States 
declared war against Great Britain. 

As soon as war was declared, the citizens of New 
York united for defence, and when news came that 

[2.3] 



The Story of Manhattan 



the city was to be attacked, a great meeting was held 
in City Hall Park, and everybody decided, then 




Castle Garde?i. 



and there, to support their country with their fort- 
unes, their honor, and their lives. Then they went 
to work, stopping all other employment, and night 

[214] 



The City Plan 



and day they built forts and defences. They built 
forts on the islands in the bay to defend the ap- 
proach to the city from the ocean, and they built 
forts in the Hell Gate to defend the approach by 
way of Long Island Sound, and they built batteries 
on the Island of Manhattan itself. One fort built 
at this time was on a little island close by the Bat- 
tery, and was called Fort Clinton. This afterward 
became Castle Garden. 

But though the British had sent soldiers and 
ships to fight the forces in America, they made no 
effort to capture the city of New York. 

The war went on for two years ; there were 
battles, many of them, on the land and on the 
sea. Very often the British had the best of it, and 
then again the Americans would have the best of it. 
But in the end, although the British fought hard, 
the Americans fought harder, and in the first 
month of the year 1 8 1 5 the war ended with a 
great battle in New Orleans, which the Ameri- 
cans won. 



CHAPTER XXXVII 



The Story of the Erie 
Canal 



EVERYTHING was going along smoothly 
when all at once the yellow fever broke out 
on the west side, far downtown. It raged 
with even more violence than had the small-pox. 
Citizens fled, and the stricken district was fenced off 
so that no one might enter it. It was like a place of 
the dead, silent and deserted. Many people went 
far out of town to Greenwich Village, and many 
business houses opened offices in this little settle- 
ment ; with the result that Greenwich Village started 
on a new life, and it was not long before it grew to 
be an important part of New York instead of a 
suburb. For many who had transferred their busi- 
ness also went to live there, not returning to the 
city even after the fever had passed away. 

In the year after the fever (it was by this time 
1824) General Lafayette came again to America and 

[216] 




u 






|0 



The Story of the Erie Canal 



was warmly received. Landing first at Staten Island, 
he was, on the following day, escorted by a naval 
procession and conducted to Castle Garden. A mul- 
titude came to voice their welcome and follow him to 
the City Hall, where he was greeted by the Mayor 
and all of the officials. During his stay he held 
daily receptions in the City Hall, and afterward 
visited the public institutions and buildings. On 
leaving for a tour of the country he was accom- 
panied all the way to Kingsbridge by a detachment 
of troops. For thirteen months he travelled through 
the country, and when he returned to New York in 
the autumn of the next year, the citizens gave a 
banquet in his honor, at Castle Garden, which sur- 
passed anything of the kind that had ever been 
seen. 

Then General Lafayette sailed away to France 
again. \\\ the month after he had gone, with all 
the city cheering him and making such a din that 
you would have thought that there never could be 
a greater, in the very next month the city was again 
all decorated, and more shouts rent the air, for 

[219] 



The Story of Manhattan 



a grand undertaking had just been completed, 
which you shall now hear of. 

Ever since the days of the Revolution there had 
been talk of digging a canal from the Great Lakes 
to the Atlantic Ocean ; for you must know that in 
these days there being no railroads, most of the 
traffic and travel were done by water. This canal 
had been long talked of, but no step had been taken 
toward building it. 

Now you will remember that De Witt Clinton, 
while he was Mayor, took a great deal of interest in 
everything that was for the good of the city. Well, 
after he had been Mayor for some years, he became 
Governor of the State, and it was he who came to 
think that although the building of the canal would 
be a great undertaking, for it would have to be 
more than 300 miles long, it might after all be ac- 
complished. For years he worked, with some 
others, while many said that it was a foolish idea, 
and too much of a task even to think of. But still 
Clinton worked at his plans, and finally, the money 
having been given by the State, the digging of the 

[220] 



The Story of the Erie Canal 



canal was begun. The work went on for eight 
years, and in the month of October, 1825, was fin- 
ished. 

The canal was a water-way that stretched across 
the State of New York from Buffalo to Albany 
and there joined the Hudson River, which leads 
straight to the city of New York, and so on to the 
ocean. 

The people in the city and in the State were de- 
lighted at the completion of the work, and on the 
day of the opening of the canal they expressed their 
joy as loudly as they could. Governor De Witt Clin- 
ton was at the Buffalo end, and he, with the State 
officers, started in a boat decorated with flags and 
bunting and was towed through the canal. As the 
boat set out from Buffalo, a cannon was fired, and 
many more cannon having been placed each within 
hearing distance of the other by the side of the 
canal, in turn took up the sound and carried it 
along, mile after mile, until the last one, stationed 
in the city of New York, was fired, one hour and 
twenty-five minutes after the first had been fired at 

[221] 



The Story of Manhattan 



Buffalo. By this the people all across the State 
knew that the canal had been opened. 

For ten days the boats crept along the canal, and 
at each town bands played, and speeches were made, 
until on the tenth day the Governor and his party 
reached New York — the first to make the journey 
across the State by water. They were taken to 
Sandy Hook, the Mayor of New York, with many 
others, attending, and surrounded by all the ships 
in the bay, with their colors flying and their whis- 
tles blowing. And there at Sandy Hook, Gov- 
ernor Clinton poured a keg of water which he had 
brought from Lake Erie into the waters of the 
ocean. 

Thus were the waters of the Great Lakes and the 
waters of the Atlantic Ocean united, and the city 
was illuminated as it had never been before, and 
great bonfires burned all night, in honor of the 
wedding. 



[222] 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 

The Building 
of the Croton Aqueduct 

IT really seemed now as though some fairy 
wand had been turned toward New York. 
Blocks of houses of brick and stone sprang 
up, and buildings of every sort crept up the Island 
of Manhattan and were occupied by more than 
200,000 people. The city was the centre of art 
and literature and science in America. The 
streets were lighted by gas ; there were fine thea- 
tres ; and the first street railroad in the world was 
in operation — the first step toward crowding out 
the lumbering stages. Newspapers were multiply- 
ing, and there were now fifty various sorts, daily, 
weekly, and monthly. The dailies cost six cents, 
and were delivered to regular subscribers. In the 
year 1833 the Sun^ the first penny paper to be pub- 
lished in the city, was issued. It was a success. 
Boys sold it on the streets in all parts of the town. 

[223] 



The Story of Manhattan 



This was the beginning of the work of the news- 
boys, and after this they were to be found all over 
the country. 

But now there came another great fire. On a 
December night, a night so cold that it was said 
there had not been such another in fifty years, 
flames broke out in the lower part of town near the 
river. The citizens battled with it as best they 
could, but it burned for three days, destroying al- 
most all of the business end of the city. For years 
afterward it was called the " Great Fire," and was 
remembered with dread. To-day there is a marble 
tablet on a house in Pearl Street near Coenties Slip, 
which was the centre of the burned district, where 
you can read of how fearful the fire was and how 
thankful the people were that the entire city was 
not destroyed. But the houses were quickly re- 
built, and New York prospered more than ever 
before. 

Destructive as the fire was, however, it called at- 
tention to the fact that there was a woful lack of 
water in the city. Most of the water was still sup- 

[224] 



The Building of the Croton Aqueduct 



plied by the wells and springs which had been suf- 
ficient for a small town, but were by no means so 
for a city of the present size. It was now that the 
idea of bringing a large supply of water from with- 
out the city was conceived. The plan was to build 
an artificial course, or aqueduct, for water, from 
the Croton River, forty miles and more above the 
city. Many thought that this was not possible, but 
then other seemingly impossible things had been 
accomplished, so they pushed ahead and com- 
menced the building of this work. A dam was 
thrown across the Croton River, forming a lake 
five miles long. The aqueduct extended from this 
dam to the city. Sometimes it had to be cut 
through the solid rock ; sometimes it was continued 
underground by tunnel ; sometimes over valleys by 
embankments, until at last it reached the Harlem 
River where a stone bridge, called the High Bridge, 
was built to support it. Through this channel of 
solid masonry the water was brought into the city, 
and when it reached the Island of Manhattan was 
distributed in pipes over the entire city. This 

[227] 



The Story of Manhattan 



wonderful work cost $9,000,000, and took seven 
years to build. When the water was first released 
from Croton River and flowed into the new chan- 




High Bridge^ Croton Aqueduct. 

nel, rushing along for forty miles to the city, the 
citizens rejoiced greatly. There was a celebration 
with parades and illuminations. 

It now looked as though there would be enough 
[228] 



The Building of the Croton Aqueduct 



water to last no matter how large the city should 
become, tor there were now 95,000,000 gallons a 
day available. But before another fifty years had 
passed there was a cry for more water. But this 
time the people knew just what to do, and another 
aqueduct was built from the Croton River. This 
one was carried under the Harlem River instead of 
over it, supplying so much water that it will doubt- 
less be many a long year indeed before another will 
be needed. 



[229] 



CHAPTER XXXIX 



Professor Morse and the 
Telegraph 



THERE lived in New York at this time a 
man whose name was Samuel F. B. Morse. 
He was an artist and was interested in 
many branches of science. He had founded the 
National Academy of Design and was Professor of 
the Literature of the Arts of Design at the Uni- 
versity of the City of New York. This man be- 
lieved that an electric current could be transmitted 
through a wire and so make it possible to convey a 
message from one point to another. One night, 
after having worked on his idea for years, he in- 
vited a few friends to the University building, which 
overlooked Washington Square, and showed them 
the result of his labors. It was the first telegraph 
in the world. This was a crude affair, but Pro- 
fessor Morse proved that he could send a message 
over a wire. In the year 1845 ^^ ^^^ advanced 



Professor Morse and the Telegraph 



so far that a telegraph Hne was built between New 
York City and Philadelphia. Then all the world 
recognized the genius of Morse. The people of 
New York especially honored him, and even in his 
lifetime they erected a statue of him which you can 
see to-day in Central Park. 

By this time the city had crept up to both Green- 
wich Village and Bowery Village, and had engulfed 
them. On every side were houses, some of them 
five and six stories high, where before they had been 
but two stories. 

An open space nearby Bowery Village was called 
Astor Place. This was the scene in 1849 ^^ ^ 
famous riot, which came about in this wise : Edwin 
Forrest, an American actor, and William Charles 
Macready, an English actor, had quarrelled about 
some fancied slight. So when Macready came to 
the city to play at the Astor Place Opera House, 
some friends of Forrest's gathered and sought to 
prevent his acting by shouting their disapproval. 
This was the excuse for an unruly mob to gather 
outside the theatre and storm the house with stones. 

[231] 



The Story of Manhattan 



Macready escaped by leaving the theatre by a rear 
door. Then a regnnent of soldiers came and after 
using all peaceful measures to quell the disturbance, 
fired upon the mob and killed many of them before 
the space was cleared and quiet restored. 




Crystal Palace. 

Castle Garden, which had once been Fort Clin- 
ton, had become a place of amusement. Here 
Jenny Lind, " the Swedish Nightingale," sang, and 
many another artist of rare ability was seen and 
heard. 



Professor Morse and the Telegraph 



Now, too, a World's Fair was opened on Mur- 
ray Hill. Held in a fairy-like building of glass, 
made in the form of a Greek cross, with graceful 
dome and arches, it was a Crystal Palace in fact 
as in name, where all the products of the world 
were shown. But, unfortunately, a few years later 
it was burned to the ground. 

There are always some wise and thoughtful peo- 
ple who think of the comfort of others, and some of 
these realized that it would not be long before the 
Island of Manhattan would be so covered with 
houses that there would be no open places where 
one might enjoy fresh air and recreation. They 
said it would be well to have a garden laid out for 
this purpose, with walks and drives as needed. 
This was done and an immense tract of woodland 
and forest, almost as large as the city itself at the 
time, was set apart. As this was in the centre of 
the island it was called the Central Park. Millions 
of people have been thankful for it, although they 
have not put their gratitude into words. 

We have now come to the days of the Great 



The Story of Manhattan 



Civil War, when many men left the city to join the 
army. Now there were those who did not see the 
necessity for war and had no desire to be soldiers, 
so when more men were called for there was a riot ; 
a terrible and destructive one. A mob swept over 
the city, a murderous, plundering mob that left a 
trail of horror wherever it touched ; and before it 
was put down a thousand persons had been killed 
or injured, and |2,ooo,ooo damage had been done. 
This was the Draft Riot. The Civil War ended, 
the city prospered, growing greater and greater, 
until in the year 1878 the stages and horse-cars 
could no longer carry all the people. Then rail- 
roads elevated above the streets were built that 
could carry great numbers swiftly to all parts of the 
city. 

New York, already become one of the great 
cities of the world, advanced with giant strides. 



[234] 



CHAPTER XL 



The Greater New York 



THE time came when the city of New York 
grew beyond the limits of the Island of 
Manhattan, though the island had seemed 
such a boundless tract of land, that it had been 
thought laughable for the City Plan to provide for 
streets over its entire length. The city grew larger 
and larger. It stretched up to the Harlem River, 
leaped over it and went branching out into the 
country beyond. Great libraries were built ; hos- 
pitals for the sick ; prisons for the wrong-doer, 
markets, churches, public institutions of every kind. 
Buildings grew taller and taller until they came to 
be twenty and twenty-five stories high. Even then 
there were so many people that there were not 
houses enough to hold them all. So they swarmed 
over into the already large city of Brooklyn, on Long 
Island. And the ferry-boats being no longer able to 
carry the vast crowds in comfort, a great suspension 

[235J 



The Story of Manhattan 



bridge was built over the East River from New 
York to Brooklyn. At last the city of New York 
and the city of Brooklyn had so much in common, 
that they, with some of their suburbs, were united 
into one great city in the year 1898. 

Then the Island of Manhattan became simply 
the Borough of Manhattan, one of the five boroughs 
of Greater New York. 

So the story of the Island of Manhattan is 
ended. 



[236] 



Table of E vents 



Year Page 

1609. Hudson discovers the island of Manhattan . . . 4 

161 3. Ship Tiger burned 10 

1 61 4. United New Netherland Company organized . .12 

1614. Fort Manhattan built 13 

1 62 1. West India Company organized 13 

1626. Peter Minuit Governor 17 

Fort Amsterdam built 19 

1629. Charter adopted under which the Manors were 

established 21 

1633. Van Twiller Governor 24 

1636. Annetje Jans' Farm laid out 27 

1638. William Kieft appointed Governor . . . '33 

1641. First Cattle Fair held on Bowling Green ... 36 

1642. Stadt Huys built 36 

Church built in the Fort 36 

1643. Beginning of the Indian wars 39 

1644. Fence erected, which was later replaced by a wall, 

and still later by Wall Street 41 

1646. Peter Stuyvesant appointed Governor ... 44 

1647. Kieft and Dominie Bogardus drowned in the wreck 

of the Princess while returning to Holland . .42 

1652. City of New Amsterdam incorporated ... 47 

1653. New Amsterdam made a walled city by the building 

of a wall across the island 48 

1655. Stuyvesant subdues the Swedes on the Delaware . 48 

Indian war breaks out again 49 

1 664. English capture New Amsterdam and it becomes New 

York 53 

Richard Nicolls Governor . . . . , '55 

[237] 



Table of Events 

Year Page 
1667. Francis Lovelace appointed Governor . , -55 
1670. Lovelace establishes the first Exchange . . .57 

1673. First mail route established 57 

The Dutch retake New York 58 

1674. English again in possession of New York ... 60 

Sir Edmund Andros Governor 61 

Captain Manning disgraced for surrendering New 

York to the Dutch 62 

1678. Bolting Act created 62 

1 68 1. Andros recalled 64 

1682. Thomas Dongan Governor 64 

1686. Dongan Charter granted to the city .... 65 

1688. New York and New England united, and Sir 

Edmund Andros Governor 65 

1689. William IIL becomes King of England ... 66 
Jacob Leisler assumes title of Lieutenant-Governor 

and takes charge of New York . . . • ^7 

1 69 1. Henry Sloughter Governor 70 

Leisler amd Milborne executed 74 

Governor Sloughter dies 75 

1692. Benjamin Fletcher Governor 77 

1693. Bradford establishes first printing press in the colony . 79 

1696. Trinity Church built 79 

Bolting Act repealed 63 

Lord Bellomont appointed Governor . . . .82 

Captain Kidd sails to search for pirates . . . 83 

1697. Streets first lighted at night 87 

1699. City wall demolished and Wall Street laid out . . 87 
City Hall built in Wall Street 87 

1700. First library opened 87 

[238] 



Table of Events 

Year Page 

I 70 1. Captain Kidd executed in England .... 84 

Lord Bellomont dies 88 

1702. Lord Cornbury Governor 89 

1705. Queen's Farm granted to Trinity Church by Queen 

Anne 28 

1708. Lord Lovelace Governor 95 

1 7 10. Robert Hunter Governor 96 

171 1. Public slave market established 97 

I 7 14. First public clock set on City Hall in Wall Street . 99 

171 5. Lewis Morris appointed Chief-Justice ... 96 

1720. William Burnet Governor 100 

1725. Bradford prints first newspaper in city ... 79 

1728. John Montgomery Governor 103 

1729. First Jewish cemetery estabhshed . . . .104 

1 73 1. First Fire Department organized . . . .105 
Montgomery dies 105 

1732. William Cosby Governor 106 

1733. James De Lancey made Chief-Justice . . .108 

1735. Peter Zenger tried for libel 109 

1736. Governor Cosby dies iio 

1 74 1. Negro Plot 11 1 

1743. George Clinton Governor 116 

1745. Louisburg captured 117 

1752. Walton House built 122 

1753. Sir Danvers Osborne Governor 118 

1755. Sir Charles Hardy Governor 121 

1756. Corner-stone of King's College laid . . . .121 
Lord Loudoun appointed Commander-in-Chief of the 

British forces in America 123 

1759. General Jeffrey Amherst appointed Commander-in- 
Chief in place of Lord Loudoun . . . .123 

[^39] 



Table of Events 



York 



Year 
1760. Montreal captured .... 

Lieutenant-Governor De Lancey dies 

George IL o'i England dies 

George IIL becomes King . 
I 76 1. Robert Monckton Governor 
1763. Monckton resigns as Governor . 
1765. Stamp Act passed 

First Colonial Congress held in New 

Sir Henry Moore Governor 
I 766. Stamp Act repealed 

Liberty Pole set up on the Common 

1770. Statues of William Pitt and George IIL erected 
Tax removed on all articles except tea 
Battle of Golden Hill .... 

1771. Sir William Try on Governor 

1773. Tax on tea reduced .... 

1774. Taxed Tea dumped into the river 
First Continental Congress held . 

1775. Lexington massacre .... 
Second Continental Congress 
Turtle Bay stores seized 
Marinus Willett seizes the British ammunition 

wagons ...... 

Battle of Bunker Hill .... 

Governor Tryon returns from England 
General Montgomery killed at Quebec 
I 776. April. — General Washington comes to New York after 
the success of the Continental army at Boston 
July. — Independence declared .... 

August. — Battle of Long Island .... 

[240] 



Table of Events 



Year 
1776. 



1777. 



1780. 
I781. 

1783. 



1788. 
1789. 



1790. 
1798. 

1803. 

1804. 

1805, 

1807, 

181I 

1812, 



September. — British occupy New York 
Battle of Harlem Heights 
A Great Fire .... 
Nathan Hale executed . 
November. — Fort Washington captured 
George Clinton, Governor of New York State 
Burgoyne surrenders at Saratoga . 
Washington at Valley Forge 
Benedict Arnold's treason .... 
Surrender of Lord Cornwallis 
September. — Treaty of Peace, between Great Britain 

and the United States, signed .... 
November. — British troops depart from New York 
December. — Washington bids farewell to his officers 

at Fraunces's Tavern 

The Doctors* Mob 

New York the seat of the National Government 
Washington becomes First President of the United 

States and comes to live in New York 
The Government House built 
Tammany Society organized 
Trinity Church rebuilt 
Small-pox epidemic .... 
Manhattan Company established . 
New City Hall begun 
Alexander Hamilton killed by Aaron 
Free School Society organized 
The Clermont launched 
City Plan completed . 
United States at war with Great Britain 
[241] 



Burr 



Page 

163 
164 
167 

168 
171 

172 
172 
177 
178 

178 
179 

180 
185 



190 
196 

197 
198 

200 
203 
205 
207 
208 

21 I 
212 
213 



Table of Events 



Year Page 

1 8 14. Fort Clinton (afterward called Castle Garden) built . 215 

War with Great Britain ended 215 

1823. Yellow fever epidemic 216 

1824. General Lafayette comes again to America . .216 

1825. Erie Canal celebration 221 

Gas introduced into city 223 

1833. First penny newspaper started 223 

1835. The ** Great Fire" destroys six hundred houses . 224 
Work commenced on the Croton Aqueduct . .227 

1842. Water admitted through the Croton Aqueduct . . 228 
1845. First telegraph recording apparatus publicly tested by 

Samuel F. B. Morse 230 

1849. Forrest- Macready riots 231 

1853. World's Fair in the Crystal Palace . . . -233 

1856. Ground bought by the city for the Central Park . 233 

1863. The Draft Riot 234 

1870. Brooklyn Bridge started 235 

1878. Elevated roads built 234 

1883. Brooklyn Bridge completed 236 

1898. The island of Manhattan becomes the Borough o'i 

Manhattan of Greater New York .... 236 



[242] 



Index 



Adventure galley, 82, 83 
Amherst, General Jeffrey, 123 
Amsterdam, 2, 14 
Andre, Major John, 177, 178 
Andros, Edmund, 61, 62, 64, 66, 68 
Anne, Queen, 28, 91-93 
Annetje Jans's farm, 27, 28 
Anti-Federalists, 187 
Anti-Leislerian Party, 68 
Apthorpe, Charles Ward, 156 
Apthorpe mansion, 156 
Aqueduct, Croton, 227-229 
Army, Continental, 144, 148, 151, 

179 
Arnold, Benedict, 177, 178 
Astor Place riot, 231, 232 
Astor Place, 231 

Bank, Manhattan, 203 
Banks, 201-203 
Battery, 10, 68, 176 
Battle of Bunker Hill, 148 
Battle of Golden Hill, 136-138 
Battle of Harlem Heights, 164, 

165, 166 
Battle of Long Island, 154, 155 
Bayard Farm, 189 
Bayard, Nicholas, 69, 72, 89 
Bellomont, Lord, 82, 83, 86-88 
Block, Adrian, 10-12 
Bogardus, Everardus, 26, 37, 42 
Bolting Act, 62, 63 
Boston, 66, 84, 140, 141, 143 
Boston Port closed, 141 



Bouweries laid out, 21 

Bouwerie Lane, 21 

Bouwerie Village, 54, 76, 231 

Bowery Road, 179 

Bowery, the, 21, 35 

Bowling Green, 12, 35, 93, 105, 

131, 134, 152, 200 
Bradford, William, 79, 108 
Bridge, East River, 236 
Bridge, High, 227 
British occupy New York City, 163 
Broad Street, 57, 148 
Broadway, 12, 58, 93, 162, 198, 204 
Bunker Hill, Battle of, 148 
Burgomasters, 46 
Burgoyne, General, 171, 172 
Burnet, William, 101-103 
Burns's Coffee-House, 129, 130 
Burr, Aaron, 150, 201, 203-207 
Burton, Mary, 112-114 
Buttermilk Channel, 30 

Cabot, John, 23, 50 
Cabot, Sebastian, 23, 50 
Canal, Erie, 220-222 
Canal Street, 205 
Cape of Good Hope, 3 
Castle Garden, 215, 232 
Cemetery, first Jewish, 104 
Central Park, 233 
Chambers, Captain, 139, 140 
Charles I., 23 
Charles IL, 62 
Church in the Fort, 36, 37 



[243] 



Index 



Church, St. Mark's, 54 

Church, St. Paul's, 150, 167, 195, 

198 
Church, Trinity, 28, 79, 129, 198 
City Hall (first), 36, 47, 75, 87, 122 
City Hall (in Wall Street), 87-89, 

94, 99, 128, 133, 152, 190 
City Hall (present), 152, 205 
City Hall Park, 50, 175, 176, 214 
City Hospital, 184 
City Plan, 212, 213 
City Wall, 48, 87 
Clarke, George, iii, 115, 116 
Clermont, the, 210, 211 
Clinton, Admiral George, 116-118 
Clinton, De Witt, 208, 220-222 
Clinton, Governor George, 171 
Clock, first public, 99 
Colden, Cadwallader, 102, 131, 

133 
Collect Pond, 50, 114, 189, 198, 

202, 204, 205, 209 
College, Columbia, 184 
College, King's, 121, 184 
Colonial Congress, the, 129 
Columbia College, 184 
Columbia Heights, 164 
Columbia University, 121, 164 
Colve, Captain Anthony, 58, 59 
Committee of Safety, 68 
Common, the, 50, 137, 152, 184, 

198, 205 
Congress, Colonial, 129 
Congress, First Continental, 141- 

143 
Congress, Second Continental, 

144, 147 



Constitution of the United States, 

186-188 
Continental Army, 148-149, 151, 

179 
Continental Congress, First, 141- 

143 
Continental Congress, Second, 144, 

147 
Cornbury, Lord, 89-94 
Cornwallis, Lord, 178 
Corporation Library, 87 
Cosby, William, 105-110 
Council of Twelve, 39 
Croton Aqueduct, 223, 227-229 
Crystal Palace, 233 
Cunningham, Provost- Marshal, 

176 

Declaration of Independence, 

152 
De Lancey, James, 107-109, 117- 

121, 123-125 
De Lancey, Stephen, 99 
De Lancey, Susannah, 116 
Demont, William, 168 
De Vries, Captain David Pieter- 

sen, 28, 39, 40 
District of Columbia, igg 
Doctors' Mob, 185 
Dongan Charter, 65 
Dongan, Thomas, 64, 65 
Draft Riot, 234 
Duel between Alexander Hamilton 

and Aaron Burr, 206, 207 
Duke of York, 50-54, 55, 60, 61, 

64,65 
Dutch Netherlands, 2 



[244] 



Index 



East India Company, 2-5, 13 

East Indies, 2-5, 13 

East River Bridge, 236 

Elevated railways, 234 

English claim ^ew Netherland, 

23, 53 
Erie Canal, 220-222 
Exchange Place, 57 

Fairs on Bowling Green, 35, 36 

Federal Hall, 190-194 

Federalists, 187, 188 

" Federal Ship Hamilton," 18S 

Ferry-boats, 211 

Fire Department, first, 105 

Vive of 1776, 167 

Fire, " the Great," 224 

First City Hall, 36, 47, 75, 87, 

122 
First Continental Congress, 141- 

143 

First Fire Department, 105 

First houses of white men, 12 

First Jewish cemetery, 104 

First mail route, 57 

First minister, 26, 36, 42, 43 

First newspaper, 79 

First night-watch, 87 

First pavements, 93 

First printing press, 79 

First public clock, 99 

First roads, 35 

First schoolmaster, 26 

First sidewalks, 198 

First soldiers in New Netherland, 

26 
First steamboat, 208-211 



First street lamps, 87 

First street numbers, 198 

First telegraph, 230, 231 

First vessel built, 12 

Fitch, John, 209 

Fitzroy, Lord Augustus, 109, no 

Fletcher, Benjamin, 77-81 

Forrest, Edwin, 231 

Fort Amsterdam, 19, 27, 53 

Fort CHnton, 215, 232 

Fort James, 54 

Fort Manhattan, 13 

Fort Washington, 168 

" Fourteen Miles 'round," 195 

Franklin House, 193 

FrankHn Square, 193 

Franklin, Walter, 193 

Fraunces's Tavern, 99, 100, 180 

Frederick, Kryn, 19 

Free School Society, 208 

French Revolution, 199 

" Fulton's Folly," 211 

Fulton, Robert, 210, 211 

Gage, General Thomas, 141 
Gardiner's Island, 84 
Gates, General, 172 
Gazette, New York, 108 
George II., 104, 116, 125 
George III., 125, 134, 136, 142, 152 
Golden Hill, Battle of, 13O, 137, 138 
Golden Hill Inn, 137 
Government House, 196 
Governor's Island, 30 
Grant's Tomb 164 
" Great Fire," the, 224 
Greenwich Village, 216, 231 



[^-45] 



Index 



Hale, Nathan, 157, 158 
Half Moon, 2, 3, 4 
Hall of Records, 176 
Hamilton, Alexander, 187, 188, 

201-203, 206, 207 
Hamilton, Andrew, 109 
Hardy, Sir Charles, 121 
Harlem Heights, 161 
Harlem Heights, Battle of, 164- 

166 
Harlem River, 229 
Heights, Columbia, 164 
Heights, Harlem, 161 
Heights, Vandewater, 164 
High Bridge, 227 
Holland, 2 
Holland, States-General •of, 15, 

16 
Houses, first, of white men, 12 
Howe, Admiral, 153 
Howe, General William, 153, 155, 

158, 168, 171 
Hudson's Bay, 7 
Hudson, Henry, 3-8, 10 
Hudson's River, 8 
Hunter, Robert, 96, 97, 99, 100 
Hyde, Edward (Lord Cornbury), 

91. 

India, 4 

Indians, i, 4, 8, 9, 10, 16, 33, 34, 

37-41 
Indian War, 38-43, 49 
Ingoldsby, Richard, 71 
Island, Gardiner's, 84 
Island, Governor's, 30 
Island, Long, 30, 31, 84 



Island of Manhattan bought from 

Indians, 18 
Island, Nut, 30 
Island, Randall's, 31 
Island, Staten, 10, 28, 39 
Island, Ward's, 31 

Jail, New, 175, 176 
Jamaica, Long Island, 92 
James, Duke of York, 50-54, 60, 

61, 64, 65 
James IL, 64, 66, 67 
Jans, Annetje, 28, 42 
Jans's farm, 27, 28 
Jersey, the, 176, 177 
Jewish cemetery, the first, 104 
John Street Theatre, 195 
Journal, New York Weekly, 108 

KiDD, Captain William, 83-85 
Kieft, William, 33-43 
King's College, 121, 184 
Kip's Bay, 158, 161, 162 
Koopman, the, 19, 34 

Lafayette, Marquis de, 171, 
217-219 

Leisler, Jacob, 67-76, 86, 89 
Leislerian Party, 68, 89 
Lexington massacre, 143 
Liberty Pole, 134, 136 
Lind, Jenny, 232 
Lispenard's Meadow, 204 
Livingston, Robert, 209, 210 
Lockyer, Captain, 138, 139 
Long Island, 30, 31, 84 
Long Island, Battle of, 154-155 



[246] 



Index 



Lords of the Manors, 2i, 22 
Loudoun, Lord, 123 
Louisburg, 117 
Lovelace, Francis, 55-58 
Lovelace, Lord John, 95, 96 

Macready, William Charles, 

231, 232 
Mail route, the first, 57 
Manhattan Bank, 203 
Manhattan Company, 203 
Manhattan Island, 8, 10 
Manhattans, 8 
Manning, Captain John, 58, 59, 

61, 62 
Manors, 21, 22 
May, Cornelius Jacobsen, 16 
Milborne, Jacob, 68, 69, 72-74 
Minister, first, 26, 36, 42, 43 
Minuit, Peter, 17-24 
Mohawks, 40 

Monckton, Robert, 125, 126 
Money used by Indians, 37 
Montgomery, General Richard, 

150 
Montgomery, John, 103-105 
Montreal, capture of, 123 
Moore, Sir Henry, 133 
Morris, Lewis, 96, loi, 107 
Morris Mansion, 164 
Morris, Richard, 96 
Morris, Roger, 164 
Morrisania, 96 

Morse, Samuel F. B., 230,231 
Murray Family, 158-161 
Murray Hill, 158 
Mutiny Bill, 134, 135 



Nanfan, John, 89 

National Academy of Design, 230 

Negro Plot, 111-115 

Negro slaves, 27, 98, 99, 111-115 

Netherlands, 2 

Netherlands, Dutch, 2 

New England, 48, 64-67 

New Jail, 175, 176 

New Jersey, 40 

New Netherland, 12-14, 16-18, 24, 

50, 60 
New Orange, 59 
Newspaper, first, 79 
Newspapers, 223, 224 
New York Gazette, 108 
New York Weekly Journal, loB 
Nicholson, Francis, 66, 68-70 
Nicolls, Colonel Richard, 55 
Night watch, first, 87 
Non-Importation Agreement, 130, 

136 
Non-Importation Association, 130 
North Pole, 7 
Northwest Passage, 7 
Nut Island, 30 

Orange, Prince of, 60 
Osborne, Sir Danvers, 1 16-120 

Park, City Hall, 50, 175, 176, 

214 
Patriots, 143 
Patroons, 21, 22, 34 
Pavements, first, 93 
Pearl Street, 16, 36, 193 
Permanent revenue, the, 95, 97, 119 
Pirates, 80-84 



[247] 



Index 



Pitt, William, 134 

Plot, Negro, 111-115 

Prince of Orange, 60 

Printing press, the first, 79 

Prisons, 173-177 

Prison ships, 176, 177 

Prison, Tombs, 205 

Privateers, 80, 83 

Provisional Assembly, the, 144, 

147, 149 
Provost, the, 176 
Putnam, General, 157, 161 

Quebec, 149, 150 
Queen Street, 122 

Railroad, elevated, 234 
Randall's Island, 31 
Rebels, 143 
Restless, the, 12 
Revolution, French, 199 
Revolutionary War, 143, 144, 146, 

152, 177, 178 
Riot, Astor Place, 231, 232 
Riot, Doctors', 185 
Riot, Draft, 234 
River of the Mountains, 4, 8 
Roads, the first, 35 
Rolandsen, Adam, 26 
Royalists, 143 



St. Mark's Church, 54 
St. Paul's Chapel, 150, 167, 

198 
Schepens, the, 46 
Schoolmaster, the first, 26 
Schools, 208 
School Society, Free, 208 



195, 



Schout, the, 46 

Schout-fiscal, the, 19 

Schuyler, General Philip, 172 

Schuyler, Peter, 99 

Seal of New York, 63 

Second Continental Congress, 144, 

147 
Ship Adventure Galley, 82, 83 
Ship Clermont, 210, 211 
Ship, the first built, 12 
Ship Half Moon, 2-4 
Ship Restless, 12 
Ship Tiger, 10, 12 
Ships, prison, 176, 177 
Ships, tea, 138, 139, 140 
Sidewalks, the first, 198 
Slave Market, 98 
Slaves, 26, 27, 98, 99, 111-115 
Sloughter, Henry, 70-73, 75, 76 
Small-pox, 200 
Smugglers, 34, 39 
Soldiers, first, 25, 26 
Sons of Liberty, 128, 136, 137, 

145-147 
Spain, 13 

Stadt Huys, 36, 47, 75, 87, 122 
Stamp Act, 127-136 
Staten Island, 10, 28, 39 
States-General of Holland, 15, 16 
Steamboat, first, 208-211 
Steam ferry-boats, 211 
Street lamps, first, 87 
Street numbers, first, 198 
Street railways, elevated, 234 
Streets, how laid out, 212 
Stuyvesant, Peter, 44-49, 53, 54, 76 
Sugar-house, 174, 175 



[048] 



Index 



Tammany Hall, 197 

Tammany Society, 197 

Taxed tea, 135, 139-141 

Tea ships, 138, 139, 140 

Tea taxed, 135, 139-141 

Telegraph, first, 230, 231 

Theatre, John Street, 195 

Third City Hall, 152, 205 

Tiger, 10, 12 

Tombs Prison, 152, 205 

Tories, 143 

Trading Stations, 103 

Trinity Church, 28, 79, 129, 19S 

Trinity Churchyard, 207 

Tryon's Gate, 198 

Tryon's Row, 198 

Tryon, William, 149, 158 

Turtle Bay, 145, 146 

" Tyrant of New England," 64 

United New Netherland Com- 
pany, 12 

University of the City of New 
York, 230 

Valley Forge, 172 

Van Arsdale, John, 180 

Van Dam, Rip, 105-10S, no, in 

Vandewater Heights, 164 

Van Dincklagen, the schout-fiscal, 

31 

Van Rensselaer, Kiliaen, 25 

Van Twiller buys Governor's Is- 
land, 30 

Van Twiller's tobacco plantation, 
27 

Van Twiller, Walter, 25-32 



Vauxhall, 132 
Verhulst, William, 17 

Wall Street, 41, 87, 19G 

Wall Street, City Hall in, 87-89, 

94, 99, 128, 133, 152, 190 
Wall, the city's, 48, 87 
Walton House, 122 
Walton, William, 122 
Ward's Island, 31 
War, Indian, 38-43, 49 
War of the Revolution, 143, 144, 

146, 152, 177, 178 
War of 1812, 213-215 
Warren, Admiral Peter, 116, 117 
Washington, City of, 199 
Washington, George, 123, 145, 

148, 149, 151-158, 162, 164, 168. 

170, 172, 173, 178-183, 186, 189, 

190, 193-195, 199, 200 
Weehawken, 207 
Westchester, 168 
West India Company, 13-16, 18, 

21-23, 25, 32, 42, 46. 53, 67 
West Indies, 14 
West Point, 177 
Whigs, 143 

Willett, Marinus, 147, 148 
Willett, Thomas, 55 
William III., 60, 67, 68, 70, 82 
" William the Testy," 33 
Windmills, 27, 34 
World's Fair, 233 

Yellow fever, 216 
York, James, Duke of, 50-54. 55, 
60, 61, 64, 65 

Zenger, Peter, 108-110 



[249] 



Oot 2» ^^^^ 



OCT 4 1901 



